Socio-economic inequality in Russia: dynamics and estimation methods

Socio-economic inequality, and namely inequality in the sphere of wages and income of the population, is one of the key issues of distributive relations, the estimation of which is essential for substantiation of measures of the State social policy. The article considers several aspects of estimation of the socio-economic inequality and its dynamic changes. Among them is information support of this estimation based on a series of statistical observations annually or periodically conducted by Rosstat. The article reveals disadvantages of the surveys that lead to underestimation of inequality in wages and income primarily due to incomplete correspondence of the samples to parameters of the total population. Much attention is paid to comparison of the estimates of differentiation of wages and per capita income of population with the account of the pre-reform experience, identification of their interrelation and causes of their discrepancy in statics and dynamics. It is established that reduction of inequality in the material situation of population is determined by the regulatory effect of the State on work payment and in a greater degree on social security of the population. Analysis of the trans-regional and intra-regional inequality in population income has helped to find out that the social limits of inequality valid for European countries are not applicable to Russia having vast territory with different natural and climatic conditions. The authors propose to specify the number of people living outside households and belonging to poor strata of the population on the one hand, and relatively rich people, who do not wish to participate in surveys for various reasons on the other hand. This adjustment used in log-normal model for calculation of distribution of the population by per capita monetary income will make it possible to obtain a more accurate estimation of income differentiation.