Income Inequality and the Cost of Living at the Sub-Regional Level. Estimates for Russia

Territorial differences in living standards are typical of all countries worldwide; this explains enduring interest in research into this phenomenon at the national level, especially in countries with a pronounced inhomogeneity in spatial development. The international organizations of the UN system, the OECD, Eurostat also focus on this. Monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals proclaimed by the UN in 2015 with regard to the accomplishment of poverty eradication and inequality reduction objective necessitates studying the local manifestations of those phenomena. This problem is especially acute for the authorities of large regions which are comparable size-wise with some countries. Such characteristics of inequality and due regard for the «subregional» factor in the levels and purchasing power of income are important for the formation of social programs and the assessment of effectiveness of measures taken for the population of parts of a region or human settlement. This article focuses on describing the results of measurement of household income inequality among the residents of municipalities and the measurement of impact of territorial differences in consumer prices on the welfare. The purpose of undertaken research was to createa methodological platform, which allows assessing spatial inhomogeneity in the monetary component of well-being through indicators such as income and the cost of living of local communities, and to conduct its experimental testing based on real data. The choice of countries is motivated by the sizes of their territories and populations. The practical findings provided in the paper are based on the available statistical information and emphasis the regional differences in natural climatic and socio-economic conditions of inhabitants.