Changes in the Perception of the Poverty Line During the Depression in Russia, 1993-96 |
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| Authors: | Milanovic, Branko Jovanovic, Branko |
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| Affiliation: | Branko Milanovic is with the Development Research Group at the World Bank, and Branko Jovanovic is with the Economics Department at Texas A&M University and the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Their e-mail addresses are bmilanovic{at}worldbank.org and bjovanovic{at}worldbank.org. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments from Jeanine Braithwaite, Christine Jones, Misha Lokshin, and three anonymous referees. The research was financed by World Bank research grant RPO 681–42. |
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| Abstract: | Economic transition in Russia was accompanied by a precipitousdecline in real income for most of the population. This articleanalyzes how the decline affected people's perception of theminimum level of income needed to make ends meet. Individual-leveldata collected from repeated surveys between March 1993 andSeptember 1996 reveal that the elasticity of subjective minimumincome with respect to actual median income was 1.5 or thatpeople's subjective estimate of the minimum income for an adultRussian fell about 1.7 percent each month. This sharp reductionin the face of a decrease in real income meant that the percentageof the population who felt that they were poor declined, eventhough poverty remained at a very high level (more than 60 percentof the population) throughout the period. This self-perceptionis in marked contrast to an "objective " measure of poverty:the percentage of the population whose income was less thana given real poverty line rose. |
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