IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rnp/ecopol/ep1745.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Child Benefits and Poverty: The Case of Russia
[Детские Пособия И Бедность В России]

Author

Listed:
  • Kolosnitsyna, Marina G. (Колосницына, Марина)

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

  • Philippova, Anna V. (Филиппова, Анна)

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

25 years have passed since the beginning of the market reforms in Russia. Like other post-soviet countries, in the early 90s, Russia faced a period of sharp decline in real household incomes followed by gradual growth of the welfare of the population. However, income inequality remained a burning problem throughout this time. The poverty headcount is still about 13% on the average and varies greatly depending on territories and socio-demographic groups. Russian poverty has clear specifics: there is a high risk of poverty for families with children. This paper analyses effectiveness of child benefits from various perspectives. We estimate the benefits’ impact on the poverty of families with children using the concepts of absolute, relative and subjective poverty. The study is based on the pooled and panel household data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey conducted by the Higher School of Economics (RLMS HSE) in 2003–2015. We assess the influence of the child benefits on the probability of poverty using various econometric models. The results are robust and show that the system of child benefits all in all reduce the risk of absolute and relative poverty of the households. However, the subjective perception of poverty is positively correlated with the benefits. The study also reveals leaks and significant gaps in the coverage of poor families with the system of child benefits. Overall, the studybn confirms low effectiveness of the child benefits system in Russia and indicates a need for improving its targeting.

Suggested Citation

  • Kolosnitsyna, Marina G. (Колосницына, Марина) & Philippova, Anna V. (Филиппова, Анна), 2017. "Child Benefits and Poverty: The Case of Russia [Детские Пособия И Бедность В России]," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 4, pages 118-153, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:rnp:ecopol:ep1745
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.ranepa.ru/rnp/ecopol/ep1745.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wim Van Lancker & Natascha Van Mechelen, 2014. "Universalism under siege? Exploring the association between targeting, child benefits and child poverty across 26 countries," Working Papers 1401, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    2. Timothy YUEN WAI WA, 2007. "National Identity and Intercultural Outlook: a Critical Review of Hong Kong's Civic Education Since the 1980's," Economia. Seria Management, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 10(2), pages 129-145, December.
    3. Daria Popova, 2013. "Impact assessment of alternative reforms of Child Allowances using RUSMOD the static tax-benefit microsimulation model for Russia," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 1(6), pages 122-156.
    4. Ravallion, Martin & Lokshin, Michael, 2002. "Self-rated economic welfare in Russia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1453-1473, September.
    5. Markus Jäntti & Sheldon Danziger, 1994. "Child Poverty in Sweden and the United States: The Effect of Social Transfers and Parental Labor Force Participation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 48(1), pages 48-64, October.
    6. Aguirre, Patricia & Munoz, Ricardo, 2016. "Integrando componentes de investigación y niveles formativos en el diseño de un programa de postgrado. Caso maestría en agroempresas y agronegocios de la Universidad Técnica del Norte en Ibarra-Ecuado," Economi­a Agraria (Revista Economia Agraria), Agrarian Economist Association (AEA), Chile, vol. 19.
    7. Popova, Daria, 2014. "Distributional impacts of cash allowances for children: a microsimulation analysis for Russia and Europe," EUROMOD Working Papers EM2/14, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Taczanowski Jakub, 2012. "A comparative study of local railway networks in Poland and the Czech Republic," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 18(18), pages 125-139, November.
    9. Arcanjo, M. & Bastos, A. & Nunes, F. & Passos, J., 2013. "Child poverty and the reform of family cash benefits," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 11-23.
    10. Irina Denisova & Stanislav Kolenikov & Ksenia Yudaeva, 2000. "Child Benefits and Child Poverty," Working Papers w0006, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    11. Popova, Daria, 2013. "Impact assessment of alternative reforms of child allowances using RUSMOD – the static tax-benefit microsimulation model for Russia," EUROMOD Working Papers EM9/13, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    12. Common, Michael S, 1991. "Indirect Interdependencies as a Fundamental," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 38(2), pages 132-141, May.
    13. Bradshaw, Jonathan, 2012. "The case for family benefits," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 590-596.
    14. Zorzini, Marta & Stevenson, Mark & Hendry, Linda C., 2014. "Coordinating offshored operations in emerging economies: A contingency-based study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 323-339.
    15. Theo Goedhart & Victor Halberstadt & Arie Kapteyn & Bernard van Praag, 1977. "The Poverty Line: Concept and Measurement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(4), pages 503-520.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philippova, Anna & Kolosnitsyna, Marina, 2018. "Child benefits’ impact on poverty: Multivariate probit estimates," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 52, pages 62-90.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marina Kolosnitsyna & Anna Philippova, 2017. "Family Benefits and Poverty: The Case of Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 03/PSP/2017, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Philippova, Anna & Kolosnitsyna, Marina, 2018. "Child benefits’ impact on poverty: Multivariate probit estimates," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 52, pages 62-90.
    3. Nicholas-James Clavet & Luca Tiberti & Marko Vladisavljevic & Jelena Zarkovic Rakic & Aleksandra Anic & Gorana Krstic & Sasa Randelovic, 2017. "Reduction of child poverty in Serbia: Improved cash-transfers or higher work incentives for parents?," Working Papers PMMA 2017-04, PEP-PMMA.
    4. Luis F. Lopez-Calva & Nora Lustig & Mikhail Matytsin & Daria Popova, 2017. "Who Benefits from Fiscal Redistribution in the Russian Federation?," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 39, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Giuseppina Guagnano & Elisabetta Santarelli & Isabella Santini, 2016. "Can Social Capital Affect Subjective Poverty in Europe? An Empirical Analysis Based on a Generalized Ordered Logit Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 881-907, September.
    6. Lars Osberg, 2015. "The Hunger of Old Women in Rural Tanzania: Can Subjective Data Improve Poverty Measurement?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(4), pages 723-738, December.
    7. Maria Cracolici & Francesca Giambona & Miranda Cuffaro, 2014. "Family Structure and Subjective Economic Well-Being: Some New Evidence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 433-456, August.
    8. Verónica Amarante & Maira Colacce & Federico Scalese, 2024. "Poverty in Latin America: feelings/perceptions Vs. material conditions," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 24-01, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    9. Tine Stanovnik & Miroslav Verbic, 2004. "Perception of Income Satisfaction: An Analysis of Slovenian Households," HEW 0408003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen, 2011. "Weakly Relative Poverty," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1251-1261, November.
    11. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2006. "Income and happiness: Evidence, explanations and economic implications," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590436, HAL.
    12. Zsoka Koczan, 2016. "Being Poor, Feeling Poorer: Inequality, Poverty and Poverty Perceptions in the Western Balkans," IMF Working Papers 2016/031, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Tahir Mahmood & Xiaohua Yu & Stephan Klasen, 2019. "Do the Poor Really Feel Poor? Comparing Objective Poverty with Subjective Poverty in Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 543-580, April.
    14. Kazakova, Yuliya, 2019. "Childcare availability and maternal labour supply in Russia," ISER Working Paper Series 2019-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    15. Gerlinde Verbist & Wim Van Lancker, 2016. "Horizontal and Vertical Equity Objectives of Child Benefit Systems: An Empirical Assessment for European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1299-1318, September.
    16. Grogan, Louise, 2018. "The Labeling Effect of a Child Benefits System: Evidence from Russia 1994-2015," IZA Discussion Papers 11962, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Giuseppina Guagnano & Elisabetta Santarelli & Isabella Santini, "undated". "Subjective poverty in Europe: the role of household socioeconomic characteristics and social capital," Working Papers 113/13, Sapienza University of Rome, Metodi e Modelli per l'Economia, il Territorio e la Finanza MEMOTEF.
    18. Siu Ming Chan & Hung Wong, 2020. "Impact of Income, Deprivation and Social Exclusion on Subjective Poverty: A Structural Equation Model of Multidimensional Poverty in Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 971-990, December.
    19. Jean-Marc Falter, 2006. "Equivalence Scales and Subjective Data in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 142(II), pages 263-284, June.
    20. Sebnem Eroğlu, 2007. "Developing an Index of Deprivation Which Integrates Objective and Subjective Dimensions: Extending the Work of Townsend, Mack and Lansley, and Halleröd," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(3), pages 493-510, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    child benefits; absolute poverty; relative poverty; subjective poverty; Russia.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rnp:ecopol:ep1745. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: RANEPA maintainer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aneeeru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.