The Effect of Regional Government Expenditures on the Life Satisfaction of Russian Citizens
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2025.2.2653Keywords:
government expenditures, Russian regions, life satisfaction, welfare, regional budgetAbstract
This paper examines the factors influencing Russians’ subjective life satisfaction. A distinctive feature of the study is the use of socially oriented expenditures of the consolidated budgets of Russian regions (expenses on education, healthcare, and social policy) along with traditional socio-demographic characteristics of individuals as explanatory variables. The analysis uses panel data obtained by combining the results of national sample surveys of individuals in the RLMS of the HSE University for 2015–2022 and regional statistics of Rosstat for 2010–2021. An ordered probit model with random individual effects and fixed time effects for panel data is used as an econometric analysis tool. Due to a possible delay in the return on variable budget expenditures, the authors consider model specifications with different numbers of time lags for these indicators.
The results obtained indicate that spending on education (in the long term) and spending on healthcare (in the short and long term) have a positive effect on life satisfaction, while either negative short-term or no significant impact of spending on social policy was identified depending on the model specification.
Acknowledgments. This article is the output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).
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