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Social protection in Russia: Choices of the future
Abstract
The role of social protection in supporting people’s well‑being, reducing poverty and inequality is difficult to overestimate in stable times, but its importance increases especially in times of crisis, as confirmed by the global shock of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Under the conditions of increasing uncertainty, a social protection system turns into a “safety cushion” — a macroeconomic and sociopolitical stabilizer. The purpose of the article is to show, based on the analysis of the main trends in the development of the Russian social protection system and considering the challenges of the current moment, possible alternative choices in its development in the mid‑term period. Authors use a broad definition of the social protection system, which includes non‑contributory measures of social protection (social assistance), contributory and non‑contributory pensions, minimum wages, and social services (long‑term care). The article contributes to the literature on economics and public administration, which focuses on social policy in times of economic crises. The article discusses the turn in social protection associated with the adoption of the national development goals in 2018. The authors analyze to what extent has the coronavirus pandemic affected the main challenges and problems facing Russian social protection; what were the key decisions in the field of anticrisis support for the population, and how they affected indicators of poverty and inequality. The article also presents recent research results on changes in public attitudes toward social protection as well as issues of using the time‑budget as a component of a comprehensive assessment of the population ’ s quality of life. In conclusion, the article discusses lessons which can be learned from the experience of the pandemic‑related crisis for the future development of the Russian social protection system, including in the conditions of turbulence that have arisen in 2022.
The article considers the programme of social protection of the population – the social contract (hereinafter referred to as SC). Its development and implementation in the Russian Federation has allowed to bring forms of support for citizens and fight against poverty to a new level. The author considers the main results of the project implementation which has made it possible to change the approach in the fight against poverty to a stimulating mechanism of self-sufficiency. The experience of individual foreign countries described and analysed in the article has allowed us to compare the mechanisms of stimulating citizens to achieve the level of self-sufficiency and highlight key features and differences. The activities of foreign programmes encourage population to actively integrate into the labour market while providing assistance in exchange for fulfilling obligations to improve their skills, find a job, ensure financial security and opportunities for professional growth and self-sufficiency in the future. The programmes are not only successful in the social protection system, but also reduce poverty and inequality. The article shows that the domestic experience of implementing social support for citizens through the social contract allows us to comprehensively solve the problem of stimulation and targeted work with beneficiaries, forming an independent and informed choice of household members. The expansion of the programme acts as a guideline for continuing state support activities and ensuring interdepartmental interaction in order to form a strategic approach in the development of the state support measures for the family through targeted programmes with an effective combination of direct financial assistance and incentive measures for the long term.
Social welfare, including its non-systemic forms, has existed for several centuries and represents an important element of the economic system aimed at overcoming poverty, protecting vulnerable groups, and ensuring social justice. Changes in the role of the state in regulating the economy, particularly in the 20th century, has accelerated the development of the social welfare systems and improved the social protection level in various countries around the world. Demographic changes, population growth, and increase in population and life expectancy have created favourable conditions for improving social protection in the past century. However, today the external environment for the functioning of these systems becomes less favourable: population aging, rapid technological progress, changes in labour market structures, and other global challenges contribute to their further transformation. The article provides a comparative analysis of the benchmark financial and investment models of social welfare (hereinafter referred to as FIMSW) of Bismarck, Beveridge, and the Scandinavian model. It systematises and analyses the factors affecting the establishment and transformation of modern FIMSW in the long term. The state is advised to increase the efficiency of public-type FIMSW and encourage the development of private-type FIMSW in sectors where self-sufficiency is possible. To achieve this, it is advisable to implement stimulating financial policies based on tax incentives, programmes for co-financing and increasing financial literacy of the population.
In the context of accelerated transformation of the domestic economy, attempts at economic and socio-political isolation of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as RF, Russia), the question of rethinking the role of social protection in the development of the RF arises. The purpose of the work is to develop recommendations for increasing the adaptability of the domestic social protection system to future possible shocks, with consideration to modern practices used in developed economies. The object of the study is social protection systems. The subject is measures of adaption of these systems to consequences of financial crises. When conducting the study, the following methods have been used: analysis, induction, measurement, comparison, computational and constructive, statistical and economic. The main results of the study include identification of the basic channels for the transition of a financial crisis into a social one, and assessment of the fiscal impulses of the European Union countries, United States of America, and Russia in order to mitigate the negative shocks of financial crises. The practical significance of the work is due to the possibility of using the results in the activities of government bodies as part of improving the domestic social protection system. The similar nature of consequences of global financial crises has allowed us to draw a number of conclusions. Firstly, job retention schemes and social support measures for the unemployed population make it possible to create an effective system of income support for workers, especially for vulnerable groups. Secondly, increasing the targeting of social support measures will lead to the performance growth of social protection system, allowing for a more rational distribution of limited budget resources. Finally, this social system can effectively reach the target segment of beneficiaries only if means-testing information systems are of high quality.
Currently, the Russian Federation is actively modernizing the social support system of the population, taking place in the context of achieving the national development goals until 2030, which include the goal of reducing the poverty level. However, despite the broad architecture of the social protection system, the poverty level in the Russian Federation remains significant, which actualizes academic research on fine-tuning the targeted social support system. The subject of the study is the effectiveness of government spending on the financial provision of targeted social benefits (first of all, the monthly allowance in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child under 17 years of age as the main targeted payment in the Russian architecture of targeted social support measures). Based on the indicators proposed by the author, an assessment of the social and budgetary effectiveness of the monthly allowance in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child under 17 years old was carried out. It is concluded that there are "inadequate funds" in the structure of budget expenditures directed to the financial provision of this payment, creating a surplus (surplus) of income for some recipient households in relation to the subsistence minimum. This property is caused by the discrete procedure for determining the amount of payment for households with different incomes. At the same time, it is shown that the maximum payment amounts are insufficient to remove the least well-off households with children from the poverty zone. Moreover, the author's analysis showed the cost comparability of these post-transfer deficits and income surpluses, which made it possible to form the author's proposals for targeted redistribution of budget funds. So, based on the identified problems, changes are proposed to the procedure for assigning monthly allowances in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child under 17 years old, related to the transition to a continuous determination of the amount of payment based on the size of the income deficit of the recipient household. The proposed redistribution of budget funds makes it possible to completely overcome the poverty of households with children and does not require additional budget expenditures. These results have high practical significance for the activities of the Ministry of Labor of Russia and the Ministry of Finance of Russia, as well as regional executive authorities responsible for the implementation of social policy.
В статье представлена оценка динамики, структуры и территориальных различий параметров, характеризующих социализацию экономики России в контексте системы координат устойчивого развития. Автором проанализирована динамика показателей реальных располагаемых денежных доходов населения и их структура. Среди применяемых методов анализа официальных статистических данных Росстата, в частности, проводятся расчеты автором интегральных коэффициентов структурных сдвигов Гатева и Рябцева, а также применяются процедуры кластеризации регионов. Основным выводом проведенного исследования явились заключения не только о неоднозначной динамике реальных доходов, но и о существенной трансформации их структуры. Проведенный автором анализ уровня доходов семей с детьми и суммарного коэффициента рождаемости позволил сделать один из основных выводов работы ‒ тезис о недостаточности мер поддержки семей с детьми. В статье также сформулированы предложения по достижению высокого уровня социализации экономики относительно программы материнского капитала, государственной поддержки семей с детьми и создания высокопроизводительных рабочих мест, направленные как на увеличение доходов семей с детьми и сокращения неравенства, так и, одновременно с этим, на рост рождаемости.
The article presents an assessment of the dynamics, structure and territorial differences in the parameters characterizing the socialization of the Russian economy in the sustainable development coordinate system. The author analyzed the dynamics of real disposable monetary income of the population indicators and their structure. Among the methods used to analyze Rosstat official statistical data, in particular, the author calculates the Gatev and Ryabtsev’s integral coefficients of structural shifts, and applies the clustering of regions procedures. The main conclusion of the study was not only about the ambiguous dynamics of real incomes, but also about a significant transformation of their structure. The author's analysis of the income level of families with children and the total fertility rate allowed to make one of the main - the thesis on the measures insufficiency to support families with children. The article also formulates proposals for achieving a high level of socialization of the economy regarding the maternity capital program, state support for families with children and the creation of highly productive jobs aimed at both increasing the income of families with children and reducing inequality, and, at the same time, increasing the birth rate.
Based on statistical, analytical and expert information, monitoring of the socio-economic situation and analysis of social indicators (income, wages, pensions, unemployment, migration, housing) characterizing the standard of living and well-being of the population of the Russian Far East in the period from Q1 2019 to Q2 2023 are presented. Using statistical indicators of Rosstat, a comparative assessment of the welfare index generated for 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation was carried out, with a focus on the Far Eastern Federal District. It is shown that during the period of active shock impacts, the Far Eastern territories, thanks to state support of labor markets both during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) and during the period of the influence of international sanctions (2022 – the first half of 2023), largely retained their positions in terms of well-being, despite the fall in real incomes of the population. A slight reduction in the gap between the Far Eastern regions in terms of the welfare index still does not lead to a smoothing out of inequality in the social space of the macroregion
The problems of financial regulation of poverty and income inequality in Russia are widely discussed in the scientific literature. One of the important aspects in this area is efficiency assessment, which should be the basis for developing solutions that contribute to the growth of the Russian population welfare. This article develops a comprehensive methodology for assessing the effectiveness of the system of state financial regulation of poverty and income inequality In Russian regions on the basis of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and regression analysis. The information base contains the indicators of socioeconomic development of Russian regions for the period from 2017 to 2021. The analysis algorithm of the technical efficiency of budget expenditures on social policy has been developed and tested. The research novelty is the application of the DEA method taking into account the theory of regulation of income inequality by F. Bourguignon. The paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the regions’ efficiency and identifies the determinants of the efficiency indicators: the size of the regional economy and the level of income per capita; the share of poor citizens in the region; indicators of regional demographic development (fertility, mortality), etc.
The COVID-19 pandemic is presently influencing the financial sustainability and the social adequacy of public pension schemes. In this paper, we measure the effects of COVID-19 on the Italian public pension system by introducing a deterministic shock due to the pandemic in the evolution of the variables mainly involved in the system’s evaluation. These variables, namely the unemployment rate, wage growth rate, inflation rate, and mortality rates, are modeled in a stochastic framework. Our results show that COVID-19 worsens the financial sustainability of the pension system in the short–medium term, while it does not appreciably affect social adequacy in the medium term. The Italian pension system already showed a social adequacy problem before 2020, which the pandemic does not further deteriorate essentially.
The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted labor markets, triggering massive and instant series of experimentations with flexible work arrangements, and new relationships to centralized working environments. These approaches have laid the basis for the “new normal,” likely extending into the organization of work in the post-pandemic era. These new arrangements, especially flexible work arrangements, have challenged traditional relationships with employees and employers, work time and working hours, the work–life balance (WLB), and the relationship of individuals to work. This paper investigates how labor markets have been interrupted due to the pandemic, focusing especially on manual (blue-collar) and nonmanual (white-collar) work and the future of the WLB, along with exploring the projected deviations that are driving a foreseeable future policy revolution in work and employment. This paper argues that although hybrid and remote working would be more popular in the post-pandemic for nonmanual work, it will not be “one size fits all” solution. Traditional work practices will remain, and offices will not completely disappear. Manual labor will continue current work practices with increased demands. Employers’ attention to employees’ WLB in the new normal will target employees’ motivation and achieving better WLB. These trends for the labor market and WLB are classified into three categories—those that are predicated on changes that were already underway but were accelerated with arrival of the pandemic (“acceleration”); those that represent normalization of what were once considered avant-garde ways of work (“normalization”); and those that represent modification or alteration of pre-pandemic set-up (“remodelling”).
Due to Covid-19, many working parents are facing new challenges. The aim of this paper is to share their personal experiences and the best recommendations for resolving their difficulties. We summarise their complex thoughts on the subject of the home office in relation to the household, homeschooling and the education of all concerned. In order to address this question, a qualitative research paradigm using WhatsApp as a medium in order to explore the following research questions was used: 1) How are employees able to manage the home office, homeschooling and the household under one roof? and 2) Will WFH and homeschooling disadvantage working mothers more than working fathers? Data were collected from 10 working parents (five males and five females) in Austria. According to coding, four major themes were explored: 1) Compatibility, 2) Work/home space, 3) Work week separation and 4) Suggestions and organisational recommendations. It was determined that at the beginning of the lockdown drawing a clear boundary between the home, office and school environments caused some difficulties. Especially parents with younger children experienced problems of compatibility. Secondly, flexibility and housing in relation to the home-office-school environment was a common topic throughout the interviews. Furthermore, before Covid-19 all participants had a more classic separation of roles. Roles and expectations changed as all the family members stayed at home day in and day out. Finally, in privileged situations (more living space, jobs that could be done remotely or support of the entire family), it was often easier to deal with the current challenges. This pandemic has brought many changes in everyday life and in terms of performing old tasks and new ones. This includes work at home and homeschooling. The obtained data provide important insights into how to deal with the impact of Covid-19 on work, home and school while emphasising the importance of these questions as well as of future research for support and information. Received: 31 March 2021 / Accepted: 26 May 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021
This analysis makes use of economic forecasts for 2020 issued by the European Commission in Autumn 2019 and Spring 2020, and of a counterfactual under a no-policy change assumption, to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on EU households´ income. Additionally, our analysis assesses the cushioning effect of discretionary fiscal policy measures taken by the EU Member States. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to affect significantly households' disposable income in the EU, with lower income households being more severely hit. However, our results show that due to policy intervention, the impact of the crisis is expected to be similar to the one experienced during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. In detail, our results indicate that discretionary fiscal policy measures will play a significant cushioning role, reducing the size of the income loss (from -9.3% to -4.3% for the average equivalised disposable income), its regressivity and mitigating the poverty impact of the pandemic. We conclude that policy interventions are therefore instrumental in cushioning against the impact of the crisis on inequality and poverty.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10888-021-09485-8.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the measures of social distancing and home confinement have been perceived and experienced in the Italian socio-cultural context, how they reshaped everyday life and which are their social implications.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was exploratory and interpretative in nature and a qualitative research design was adopted accordingly. A total of 60 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted.
Findings
Research findings highlight the fact that the boundaries of everyday practices have been completely reframed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Italy. Informants show that scarcity of personal spaces, intertwined with the collapse of the boundaries between private and professional life, and also the lack of physical contact, resulted in a complex management of different social roles and in a stress overload.
Originality/value
There are no prior studies that critically analyse the lived experiences of individuals during the lockdown and the impact of home confinement on their meaning-making processes. This paper sheds light on the reframing of everyday life, thereby enhancing our understanding of a novel issue that is of primary concern for social scientists.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies implemented to deal with it have had economic and societal repercussions all over the world. In India, a nationwide lockdown was initiated on 25 March 2020 which continued in a diluted form as we were conducting the interviews for the paper in July 2020. The lockdown brought activities outside the home to a standstill and people were expected to stay indoors in order to ensure social distan-cing and break the chain of infection. The lockdown sparked its own problems and triggered discussions on issues including economic hardship and domestic violence. The question of how domestic responsibilities are shared among adults in families has also come to the forefront of debate. As hired part-time help was discontinued under lockdown, parents who had hitherto outsourced childcare and housework were suddenly left to fend for themselves. This article attempts to explore the manner in which such unpaid domestic responsibilities, especially childcare, were shared between parents in middle-class homes. The gendered nature of this division of housework and care work, and its varied implications on the paid work and careers of mothers and fathers, is the focus of inquiry. ARTICLE HISTORY
We estimate the effect of minimum wages on low-wage jobs using 138 prominent state-level minimum wage changes between 1979 and 2016 in the U.S using a difference-in-differences approach. We first estimate the effect of the minimum wage increase on employment changes by wage bins throughout the hourly wage distribution. We then focus on the bottom part of the wage distribution and compare the number of excess jobs paying at or slightly above the new minimum wage to the missing jobs paying below it to infer the employment effect. We find that the overall number of low-wage jobs remained essentially unchanged over the five years following the increase. At the same time, the direct effect of the minimum wage on average earnings was amplified by modest wage spillovers at the bottom of the wage distribution. Our estimates by detailed demographic groups show that the lack of job loss is not explained by labor-labor substitution at the bottom of the wage distribution. We also find no evidence of disemployment when we consider higher levels of minimum wages. However, we do find some evidence of reduced employment in tradable sectors. We also show how decomposing the overall employment effect by wage bins allows a transparent way of assessing the plausibility of estimates.
Consistent growth of the minimum wage is one of the important issues in recent Russian legislation. In May 2018 the minimum wage was increased up to the value of the subsistence minimum. In this paper we estimate the expected impact of the growth of the minimum wage on poverty, not taking into account possible negative effect on employment. According to the results obtained, even a significant increase in minimum wages will not lead to a noticeable poverty reduction. The main reason lies in the differences between the concepts of poverty, defined at the household level, and low wages, determined individually. If the minimum wage grows to the subsistence minimum, only a little more than a quarter of all additional payments will go to poor households. At the same time, almost half of the beneficiaries of the growth of the minimum wage live in formally non-poor families with incomes that slightly exceed the poverty line. A greater impact on poverty can be achieved by determining the minimum wage on the basis of regional subsistence minimum values. However the main emphasis in overcoming poverty should be made on targeted programs, in which assistance is provided taking into account household incomes rather than individual incomes of workers, as in the case of minimum wage increase.
This paper provides a meta‐analysis of microeconometric evaluation studies on the effectiveness of active labor market policies. The analysis is built upon a systematically assembled data set of causal impact estimates from 57 experimental and quasi‐experimental studies, providing 654 estimates published between January 1990 and December 2017. We distinguish between the short and longer term impacts in our analysis; at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after program start. After correcting for publication bias and country‐specific macroeconomic characteristics, subsidized labor and public employment programs have negative short‐term impacts, which gradually turn positive in the longer run. Schemes with enhanced services including job‐search assistance and training programs do not have these negative short‐term effects, and stay positive from 6 until 36 months after program start.
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 study confirms low effectiveness of the child benefits system in Russia and indicates a need for improving its targeting.
In this chapter we provide an overview of international experiences of public
works. We present the motivation, goals and theoretical background of public
works as a public policy intervention, the various designs of concrete public
works programmes, and the main results of evaluations aimed at measuring
the efficiency and effectiveness of these programmes. The chapter is supplemented
with boxes which summarise the experiences of a few concrete cases
in various countries (see Boxes K1.1, K1.2 and K1.3).
Public works programmes were introduced in developed and less developed
countries with a variety of motivations and goals. These included counter-cyclical
measures or social policy, infrastructural development and disaster management
aims. The programmes operated in various forms and with various
target groups and programme structures. The experiences concerning their
implementation and levels of success are also different
This article analyses programmes of cash allowances for children and compares their effectiveness in combating child poverty in Russia and four European Union (EU) countries representing alternative family policy models – Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Using microsimulation models, this article estimates the potential gains if the Russian system were re-designed along the policy parameters of these countries and vice versa. The results confirm that the poverty impact of the programme design is smaller than that of the level of spending. Other conditions being equal, the best distributional outcomes for children are achieved by applying the mix of universal and means-tested child benefits, such as those employed by the United Kingdom and Belgium. At the same time, the Russian design of child allowances does not appear to be less effective in terms of its impact on child poverty when transferred to European countries in place of their current arrangements.
We apply a normalization of deviance model to understand the prevalence of the illegal practice of wage arrears, the delayed payment of wages, in Russia during the 1990s. Viewing organizational deviance as potentially self-reinforcing, we hypothesize that the frequent adoption of a deviant practice within a community makes it more likely that firms in that community will engage in deviance and less likely that injured stakeholders will oppose it. Our empirical analysis of wage arrears in Russia, based on panel data from a large, nationally representative sample of agricultural and industrial enterprises, supports our hypotheses.
Social protection is absent from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and only recently has gained some prominence in the post-2015 discourse. In the past quarter century, however, rising inequality has often accompanied economic growth. At the same time, the growing importance of risk and vulnerability on the wellbeing of the poor has been recognized. Further, there is now a consensus on adopting more ambitious goals on poverty reduction. Defining social protection as a collection of programs that address risk, vulnerability, inequality and poverty through a system of transfers in cash or in kind, this paper argues that social protection needs to be on the post-2015 agenda as a key element of the discourse. It provides an empirical overview of social protection around the world based on the World Bank's Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE) data set. Focusing on the goal of ending poverty, the paper estimates that social protection programs are currently preventing 150 million people from falling into poverty. Based on the data set, the paper develops, tentatively and for discussion, a set of candidate goals, indicators and targets for the acceleration of poverty reduction through social protection. The authors ask what it would take for social protection programs to contribute to halving the poverty gap in a country. They show that if all countries could achieve the actual poverty reduction efficiency already observed in the top quartile of countries, then 70 percent of the countries in the sample could achieve this goal. However, for 30 percent of the countries, even reaching the top quartile on efficiency will not be enough -- for these countries, the issue is one of budgetary adequacy.
The paper provides an up-to date and selective review of the literature on how social safety nets contribute to growth. The evidence is carefully chosen to show how safety nets have the potential to overcome constraints on growth linked to market failures, and is organized into 4 distinct pathways: i) encouraging asset accumulation by changing incentives and by addressing imperfections in financial markets caused by constraints in obtaining credit, and from information asymmetries; overcoming such failures helps households to invest into their human capital or productive assets; ii) failures in insurance markets especially in low income setting; safety nets are assisting in managing risk both ex post and ex ante; iii) safety nets are overcoming failure to create assets and other local economy complementary factors to household-level investments; iv) safety nets are shown to relax political constraints on policy. Safety nets have a dual objective of directly alleviating poverty through transfers to the poor and of triggering higher growth for the poor. However, the trade-off between the dual objectives of equity and growth is not eliminated by the potential for productive safety nets; this remains critical for designing social policies.
This paper proposes a new definition and conceptual framework for Social Protection grounded in Social Risk Management. The concept repositions the traditional areas of Social Protection (labor market intervention, social insurance and social safety nets) in a framework that includes three strategies to deal with risk (prevention, mitigation and coping), three levels of formality of risk management (informal, market-based, public) and many actors (individuals, households, communities, NGOs, governments at various levels and international organizations) against the background of asymmetric information and different types of risk. This expanded view of Social Protection emphasizes the double role of risk management instruments—protecting basic livelihood as well as promoting risk taking. It focuses specifically on the poor since they are the most vulnerable to risk and typically lack appropriate risk management instruments, which constrains them from engaging in riskier but also higher return activities and hence gradually moving out of chronic poverty. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001
The Object of the Study. Wages in Russiya and in its regionsThe Subject of the Study. Levels and differentiation of wages The Purpose of the Study is examining the impact of raising the minimum wage up to the subsistence minimum level of the able-bodied population in 2018-2019 on the dynamics of the main characteristics of wages at the federal and regional levels. The Main Propositions of the Article. The problem of spatial inequality includes socioeconomic inequality of the population which primarily depends on work remuneration as the main source of monetary income of households. The problems of work remuneration in the post-Soviet period are well-known – low levels, relatively high wage differentiation including cross-sectoral and cross-regional disparities. These were caused to a large extent by the low level of the minimum wage in the country. In May 2018 the minimum wage was raised up to the subsistence minimum level (poverty line) of the able-bodied population. Using the data from the wage surveys conducted by Rosstat in 2017 and 2019 the authors analyse the shifts in wage distribution of workers in Russiya and in its regions. The increase in the minimum wage resulted in a decline in the general differentiation of wages across the country and in the vast majority of regions, in reduction of the intra-industry and cross-regional differences. In 2019 the funds ratio (ratio of mean wages of the upper and the bottom deciles) exceeded 10 only in six regions, while in 2017 there were 29 such regions. In 2017 that ratio was below 8 only in 6 regions, in 2019 – in 45 regions, and in most of them (26) the average wage was 3 times below the subsistence minimum level of the able-bodied population. The analysis has shown that the low level of wages of most employees still remains an urgent problem, and reduction in wage inequality also has the reverse aspect. We know from the Soviet experience that low (as well as high) level of wage inequality does not promote work incentives and socioeconomic development of territories.
There is a lack of robust evidence regarding outcomes for day care use among older people living with long‐term conditions (LTCs). Day care is provided by independent, private and voluntary and charitable sectors. This systematic review aims to establish current evidence of outcomes for older people with LTCs attending day care services and outcomes on carers, across all service models. Narrative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative data was undertaken. The review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic literature search was carried out across eight electronic databases and reference lists of key journals between 2004 and October 2020 were searched. Searches returned 1,202 unique titles. Forty‐five articles from 16 countries met the criteria on review of title, abstract and full article. There is limited evidence suggesting improved levels of perceived psychological health, quality of life, perceived general health, physical health and functioning for older people attending day care who have LTCs. The respite function of day care resulted in positive outcomes for carers. Studies evaluating outcomes for participants or carers were limited in quantity and quality. There is limited information regarding outcomes for day care attendance for older people with multiple LTCs from existing literature. Further research focusing on LTCs and day care attendance would benefit this field.
The public health response to COVID-19 in many countries has involved strict restrictions on movement and economic activity which threaten the livelihoods of economically vulnerable households. In response, governments are adopting emergency economic measures to provide households with some safety net. We provide an overview of the policies that could form a comprehensive social protection strategy in low-income and middle-income countries, with examples of specific policies that have been adopted. Our core argument is that these countries can cast an emergency safety net with extensive coverage if they use a broader patchwork of solutions than higher-income countries. These strategies could include expanding their social insurance system, building on existing social assistance programmes, and involving local governments and non-state institutions to identify and assist vulnerable groups who are otherwise harder to reach.
This study examines the effect of long-term care insurance (LTCI) on hospital utilization and expenditures among the elderly in China. We exploit the introduction of public LTCI in Shanghai, China, and implement a difference-in-difference technique to disentangle the effects of LTCI. We find that the introduction of LTCI significantly reduces the length of stay, inpatient expenditures, and health insurance expenditures in tertiary hospitals by 41.0%, 17.7%, and 11.4%, respectively. We find a greater effect on people over 80 years old. Outpatient visits in tertiary hospitals decrease by 8.1% per month after LTCI. The possible mechanisms are the substitution of long term care for hospitalization and health improvement. Our cost-effectiveness analysis indicates that every extra 1 yuan spent in LTCI will generate a decrease of 8.6 yuan in health insurance expenditures.
Objectives
First, to compare changes in cognitive function, behavioral symptoms, and physical function for Korean Long‐Term Care Insurance (LTCI) beneficiaries with dementia in day care (DC) and home care (HC) settings over 1 year. Second, to examine the association between LTCI service type and the aforementioned health outcomes.
Methods
A retrospective matched cohort study was conducted using the national data set of the National Health Insurance Service in Korea. We identified 7822 beneficiaries with dementia who received either DC or HC services consistently for 1 year from 2008 to 2009. The propensity score matching method was used, yielding 416 participants in each group. Paired samples t‐tests and logistic regression analyses were conducted.
Results
Baseline differences between the two groups are present. According to multiple regression models, DC, when compared with HC, was related to less deterioration in cognitive and physical function but was associated with less improved behavioral symptoms 1 year after the LTCI enrollment. In the comparison between matched cohorts, DC, when compared with HC, was associated with less cognitive decline, less disability progression, and similar decrease in behavioral symptoms.
Conclusions
Cognitive function and disability declined less in the DC group, compared with the HC group. Conversely, behavioral symptoms showed a similar decrease between the two groups after 1‐year follow‐up. Further research is necessary to examine key features of DC services that have helped delay functional deterioration and alleviate behavioral symptoms.
The paper examines the capacity of further development of the targeted social support programs in Russia. The analysis shows the position of this incometested social assistance in the federal and regional social support systems. On the basis of the revealed barriers to the income-tested programs three directions of changes necessary to their further promotion are suggested.
Welfare state reform occurs in all advanced capitalist democracies, but it does not occur in identical ways, to the same degree or with similar consequences. in Comparative Welfare State Politics, Kees van Kersbergen and Barbara Vis explain the political opportunities and constraints of welfare state reform by asking ‘big’ questions. Why did we need a welfare state in the first place? How did we get it? Why did we get different worlds of welfare and do we still have them? What does the welfare state actually do? Why do we need to reform the welfare state? Why is reform so difficult, but why does it nevertheless happen? Can and will the welfare state survive the Great Recession? This book informs the reader comprehensively about the welfare state, while contributing to the ongoing debate on the politics of welfare state reform.
. Policy responses to the global financial meltdown of 2008 and the collapse of aggregate demand have largely been driven by domestic interests. Resurgent protectionism, bank bail-outs and national-level stimulus packages are distorting competition and incentives to the detriment of developing countries, much-needed spending on social protection and, ultimately, rapid global economic recovery. Warning against underestimation of the job-destruction potential of the current crisis, the author argues for a truly global stimulus package, together with a rethink of economic paradigms and regulatory policies, financial assistance to developing countries, a less constraining IMF, and stronger social protection as an automatic stabilizer of economies.
In Asia and Africa particularly, public works programs have significantly mitigated the negative effects of climatic risks on poor farmers, and farm laborers. These programs typically provide unskilled manual workers with short-term employment on projects such as road construction and maintenance, irrigation infrastructure, reforestation, and soil conservation. The implementation of these programs is being handled by small-scale private contractors, Non-Government Officials (NGOs), or social funds. The main constraint in implanting public works programs in much of Africa is due to lack of capacity. These constraints can be eased if donors coordinate their activities, and provide assistance to build private contracting capacity. This paper discusses the rationale behind workfare programs in Africa and Asia with respect to such design features as wage rates, labor intensity, and how they were selected and implemented. Available estimates and evaluations are used, and whether these programs have achieved their goals is presented. The paper concludes with summary lessons from experience.
The available minimum wage literature is mostly based on evidence from developed countries or developing countries of Latin America. Little empirical work has been done on the effects of minimum wages in transition economies, where labour institutions experienced rapid changes and law enforcement differs in many important ways. This paper presents the first empirical evidence on minimum wage effects for Russia, the largest transition economy. I use regional variation in the relative level of the federal minimum wage to identify the impact of the threefold increase in the real value of the minimum wage on the Russian wage distribution between 2005 and 2009. The analysis suggests that the minimum wage can account for the bulk of the decline in the lower tail inequality, particularly for females.
This article presents a meta-analysis of recent microeconometric evaluations of active labour market policies. We categorise 199 programme impacts from 97 studies conducted between 1995 and 2007. Job search assistance programmes yield relatively favourable programme impacts, whereas public sector employment programmes are less effective. Training programmes are associated with positive medium-term impacts, although in the short term they often appear ineffective. We also find that the outcome variable used to measure programme impact matters, but neither the publication status of a study nor the use of a randomised design is related to the sign or significance of the programme estimate.
We assess 14 predictions from market transition theory using survey data on employment, earnings, and income in Russia, during the first five years of market reform. Although the private sector has grown, self-employment is still rare. Incomes are down, and unemployment is up. Some entrepreneurs and managers have achieved dramatic success, while most Russians have steadily lost ground to hyper-inflation. The upshot is a distended income distribution and unprecedented income inequality. Distinctive features of late Soviet-era stratification persist: low returns to education, a gender gap in earnings, and low earnings among professionals. The Russian market transition offers more opportunity in trade, consumer services, and speculation and fewer in manufacturing than do other emerging markets. This dynamic corresponds to the image of "merchant capitalism" and contradicts the predictions of market transition theory.
Social protection in Russia before and after the pandemic: Forks in the future
- E A Andreeva
- S S Biryukova
- N D Voronina
- E S Gorvat
- E A Gorina
- A R Goryaynova
- D E Kareva
- M A Nagernyak
- E A Nazarbaeva
- A I Pishnyak
- D V Pomazkin
- D O Popova
- E V Selezneva
- O V Sinyavskaya
- S A Ter-Akopov
- M A Ustinova
- N V Khalina
There will be a gradual loss of modern skills: Interview. Kommersant
- V E Gimpelson
Long-term social policy : Multidimensional poverty and effective targeting
- T M Maleva
- E E Grishina
- E A Tsatsura
Russia’s labor market model: What’s ahead?
- R Kapeliushnikov
Families with children in Russia: Standard of living and social support policy
- L N Ovcharova
Assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on income distribution and poverty in Russia. Presentation at the research seminar “Active aging policy and pension reforms: Russian and international experience”, HSE Institute for Social Policy
- M Matytsin
- D Popova
- S Freije
Financial well-being of the population in the pandemic: The impact of the income support policy response in Russia
- A I Пpishnyak
- E A Gorina
- I I Korchagina
- S A Ter-Akopov
Platform employment: Definition and regulation
- O V Sinyavskaya
- S S Biryukova
- A P Aptekar
- E S Gorvat
- N B Grishchenko
- T B Gudkova
- D E Kareva
Preliminary estimates of changes in inequality under the impact of the pandemic and fiscal policies
- D O Пpopova
Longterm care system: Lessons from international experience for Russia
- O V Sinyavskaya
- E V Selezneva
- E L Yakushev
- E S Gorvat
- N B Grishchenko
- D E Kareva
Parents, especially mothers, paying heavy price for lockdown. IFS
- A Andrew
How to make public works work: A review of the experiences. Social Safety Nets Primer Notes
- Del Ninno
- C Subbarao
- K Milazzo
Social protection global policy trends 2010-2015: From fiscal consolidation to expanding social protection: Key to crisis recovery, inclusive development and social justice
- Ilo
Updated estimates and analysis. Geneva: International Labour Organization
- Ilo