Russian Journal of Economics and Law (Dec 2014)
Conditions and sources of households' well-being in Russia: regional aspect
Abstract
Objective: to view the factors of regional differences in national Russian households' well-being and analyze the consequences of these differences in the context of their economic inequality Methods: method of comparative analysis, functional and historical-logical methods. Results: The notions “well-being” and “prosperity” are analyzed from the point of view of their content. From the point of view of the essence of well-being, the regional differences in the level of households' well-being in several Russian regions are viewed (basing on statistics of the Russian Statistics Agency for 2012-2014). The analysis of differences allowed to make conclusions about their causes, conditions of occurrence and sustainable reproduction as factors of economic inequality of national households. The drawbacks of “prosperity” indicator make it necessary to use one more qualitative indicator in economic analysis, i.e. “well-being”. Households' well-being is determined by their conditions and sources, which are deeply differentiated by the country regions. That is why the Russian households are objectively and subjectively limited in achieving the level of well-being which they strive to achieve. Scientific novelty: The conclusions of theoretical analysis can be used by the regional and federal executive bodies to plan social-economic development of the territory as a space for implementing the economic potential of households functioning in these economic and social coordinates. Practical value: The theoretical conclusions can be used to increase the level of households' potential realization, by regional and federal authorities managing the social-economic development in the middle and long term.
