The level and the profile of persistent poverty in Russia

Abstract

Experts who work on the poverty issues agree that the group of poor is very heterogeneous. Based on duration of living below the subsistence level, authors identify persistent and transitory poverty. Income of those who face persistent poverty stays below the poverty line for a long time, while those who suffer from transitory poverty have unstable situation: after overcoming poverty for some time many of them can face the problem of low income again. Different methods exist for evaluating of the level of persistent and transitory poverty on both panel and cross-sectional data. The article presents the detailed description of advantages and limitations of different approaches to persistent poverty measurement. After consideration of these approaches the analysis of persistent poverty in Russia on RLMS HSE data is performed. Taking into account the huge set of previous studies we evaluate the share of persistently poor population according to methodology adopted in European countries, the profile of persistent poverty is also described. The results are compared with already existing data about chronic poverty in Europe.