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TERRA ECONOMICUS

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  • 2016
  • No 3
  • Evaluation of the social well-being of Russian regions, the level and dynamics of inter-regional disparities based on a welfare functions

Evaluation of the social well-being of Russian regions, the level and dynamics of inter-regional disparities based on a welfare functions

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 14 (no. 3),

Subject of the study. This article analyzes the alternative approaches to construction of social welfare functions, and use them for evaluationof the inter-regional disparities in the Russian Federation, as well as the convergence/divergence of the Russian regions in social well-being in 2004–2014. Methodology. We analyze the generalizing welfare functions and problems of their construction.As a basis of researchwe selected «the abbreviated social welfare functions»by A. Sen and B. Atkinson, representing an adjustment of real income per capita to indicator of intraregional inequalities. We proposed the extension of these functions by including four additional elements of well-being: the indices of leisure, life expectancy, housing and real net savings. For evaluation of the regional inequality in the level of welfare we employed the coefficients of Giniand variation, the Hachman and Theil indices, all of themweighted by population. Results of the research. We have obtained estimations of the social well-being of Russian regions for 11 years based on simple and advanced functions by Sen and Atkinson.We established the dynamics of the regions’ relative welfare and their ranks shift as well as the contributions of thefactors in the regions’ well-being.We have identified a logit-shaped type of inter-regional differences in the level of welfare per capita: the coexistence of excessive poverty and excessive richnesswith the stable middle. On the basis of estimations of inter-regional inequality in the level of social welfare we concluded that the convergence trend was interrupted in 2012 and has turned to divergence. Our study also revealed that the degree of inter-regional inequality and its rate for the welfare functions is lower than for the real income per capita. Application of results. The results and conclusions may serve to further specification of welfare functions and theiruse for evaluation of regions’ well-being, inter-regional differences in welfare and trends of development


Keywords: social well-being; welfare function; region; uneven; convergence; divergence

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Publisher: Southern Federal University
Founder: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606