Experience in Implementing Social Benefits Monetization Reform in Russia; Literature Review
The present paper is an integral part of the "Preparation of the strategy for social benefits monetization reform in Ukraine" project, co-financed by the 2008 Polish aid programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and carried out by CASE in 2008. The paper was prepared as background material aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the main bottlenecks in reforming a vast in-kind benefits system typical for many countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The paper focuses on the following issues: aims and motives of monetization reforms in Russia; expected outcomes of the reform; description of the implementation process; changes of the roles of various actors and agencies; compensation of housing and communal services (HCS) expenses in the course of HCS and monetization reforms; and the major gains and failures of the reform. The paper concludes with lessons that can be derived from the Russian monetization experience for the planned Ukrainian monetization reform. The paper is based on extensive research on the monetization reform in Russia and literature published by leading Russian independent research centers including the Independent Institute for Social Policy (IISP), the Institute for Urban Economics, the Centre for Economic and Financial studies (CEFIR), and the Institute for the Economy in Transition (IET).
Reform of in-kind benefits in Russia
Based on national legislation passed in the summer of 2004, Russia implemented wide-ranging changes to its system of category-based social benefits in January 2005. Implementation difficulties made headlines around the world. This article discusses the structure of the reforms and examines the extent to which they: (a) reduce or eliminate the categorical allocation of public resources; (b) replace in-kind benefits with cash transfers; and (c) target benefits, in whatever form, to low-income people. The overall conclusions are that the reforms score very badly against criteria (a) and (c), but get a middling score for cashing-out benefits.
Income, Inequality, and Poverty During the Transition from Planned to Market Economy
This book is about income, inequality, and poverty during the remarkable period of collapse of Communism and the construction of capitalism in the 18 formerly socialist countries. It covers a period of almost ten years, from the time of the early Gorbachevian reforms of 1987-88 to approximately 1996. The goal of this book is to describe what happened during the transition in the 18 countries. Specifically the book examines what happened to the real incomes of the population, to the inequality with which incomes and expenditures are distributed, and to poverty. It also attempts to find out why these changes occurred. In looking ahead, the book concludes that if growth is to make a substantial dent in poverty relatively quickly, it will be necessary to stabilize income inequality at current levels. Assuming that inequality remains at current levels, and using the average growth rate of 5 percent per capita per year, poverty appears to be staying in these transition economies until well into the twenty-first century. The surveys are of uneven quality. Issues related to limitations of the data are presented at length in Appendix 1.