Subsistence Minimum as a Criterion of Poverty. Measurement, Facts and Politics
Subsistence Minimum as a Criterion of Poverty. Measurement, Facts and Politics

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of poverty in modern Russia, which is one of the key social indicators of the achieved level of the country's well-being and its national economic security. The idea has been put forward as a working scientific hypothesis that the poverty level of a particular country depends not only on the factors of its social and economic development, but also on the accepted methodology for its definition and measurement. In Russia, the official approach to measuring poverty is based on the absolute concept of poverty, according to which the poor are individuals and households with per capita incomes below the cost of the subsistence minimum (the minimum consumer basket). In accordance with the integrative approach, defined as the methodological framework of the study, and the system of subsistence level indicators, the level and depth of poverty in the RF in 1992-2017 was assessed. Clustering of territorial entities of the Russian Federation has been carried out and the ranks of the latter have been established, depending on the ratio of per capita money income to the subsistence minimum, indicating regional asymmetry and interregional differentiation of the subsistence minimum (one of the significant poverty factors) with a significant degree of "deprivations" in the society. The author's conceptual approach to the state economic policy intervention is substantiated in order to promote the real reduction in the (absolute and deprivation) poverty level in the country.

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