Regional Inequality in the Context of the Availability of Socially Significant Benefits: Comparative Assessment

Abstract

In the conditions of transforming social challenges, the article actualizes the importance of finding new perspectives for considering inequality, the reduction of which is a priority task of the state social policy. The emergence of new and aggravation of old inequality forms is complicated by territorial (regional) features and requires a comprehensive approach to their measurement. Moreover, the assessment of regional inequality in the conditions of contemporary Russia is impossible only on the basis of the monetary component without studying the possibilities of access of population to certain social benefits. Deep interregional gaps in housing security, low availability of medical and educational services and limited access to other benefits determine the importance of assessing regional inequality within the non-monetary component. The study reflects the results of the current situation analysis and a retrospective assessment of the benefits availability; develops a scientifically based method for calculating the spatial availability index. We draw the conclusion that there is a significant non-monetary differentiation in terms of the main socially significant areas of citizens’ life. The article proves that on an average Russian scale, the most significant deterioration was in employment. The study identifies three levels of benefits spatial availability (high, medium, and low) with a polar distribution of the regions in extreme groups, while their minimal concentration is in the middle cluster as of 2018. We should note that there are no constituent entities of the Russian Federation that have a critical value of the integral index of spatial accessibility at the end of the analysed period. We consider this point as positive. The amount of costs for technological innovations is the main factor of increasing the spatial availability. Non-monetary inequality creates additional risks and threats for the development of human capital, increases social tension in society.