What Does the Deprivation Approach Say About Russian Poverty?

Abstract

The relative deprivation approach is more appropriate for accurate description of the life realities of Russians than other measures of poverty.However, the deprivations used in this methodology should be relevant to the socio-economic situation of a particular society. This article provides a systematization of deprivations used in studies of poverty in post-Soviet Russia. The author proposes an index of deprivation, which accounts for “classic” deprivations for Russian society, as well as deprivation in access to information and computer technologies, which was previously considered in stratification studies, but was not included in the deprivation poverty index. The scale of relative poverty in terms of deprivations is analyzed together with absolute and subjective poverty. To identify the qualitative specifics of Russian poverty, deprivations are considered in groups of absolutely, subjectively, and relatively poor people. The study shows that absolute poverty is characterized by deficit of housing and a relatively more prosperous situation in relation to other deprivations, while subjective poverty is characterized by deprivations in consumption with relatively better situation in the housing aspect. The results highlight the continuing divergence of different dimensions of poverty in Russian society, which indicates its multidimensional nature.

Acknowledgments. This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).