Poverty and economic growth in Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to consideration of the dynamics of the main characteristics of poverty and its determining factors. The analysis conducted has shown a double de crease of poverty for the years of economic growth in Russia. That has happened mainly due the raise of wages in all sectors of economy, especially in those with high proportion of low paid jobs. There are still no crucial changes in the profiles of poverty: the biggest group among the poor is still consisted as of people of abletowork age; families with children are characterized by maximum poverty risks, which are twice as much higher than average level in Russia, while households composed only of pensioners, on the contrary, two times more find themselves among the poor. Pensioners overcome pov erty mainly due their paid employment. Among the nonworking pensioners the level of poverty is 1,5 higher than average Russian level. These results show that the potential of the influence of economical growth on poverty is in fact exhausted, and in the future its diminishing should be related with meanstested programs of social support of the poor, that are based on the combination of stimulation of selfprovision and monetary transfers. The design of such programs should be connected with life cycles of families. Current system of social transfers is oriented towards the support of nonpoor families and individuals.