Socio-economic Factors of Subjective Poverty

This paper examines the socio-economic factors that influence Russians’ assessment of the level of their material status in society. The problem field is the lack of scientific works identifying socio-economic factors of chronic / situational subjective poverty using econometric methods. The dependent variable is subjective poverty, formed within the framework of the nine-step ladder methodology, where the poor are on the first step and the rich are on the top step. Following the established methodology, the Russians who put themselves on the three lower rungs of this ladder are classified as subjectively poor [Jackman, Jackman, 1973]. To realize this task, the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE is used as a source of data. Descriptive and regression (binary logit-regression models) analyses were conducted on two groups of the population - subjectively poor for the year of observation, as well as Russians who are chronically in subjective poverty for five years (2018-2022). In the course of the study, it was found that the distinctive factors of subjective chronic poverty were the lack of durable goods, social media resource, and mid- and upper-level professionals. It was recommended to provide social support to professionals and to carry out educational reforms to create a modern and in-demand level of specialist training that would allow Russians to experience a stable standard of living.