Population income and socio-economic policy of the state. Population income and social policy in the Russian Federation

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Pacific State Economic University

Department of Economic Theory

Course work

Population income and social policy in the Russian Federation

Vladivostok 2008

INTRODUCTION

The formation of market relations in Russia is characterized by a large degree of uneven distribution of income of the population, and not only the well-being in society, but also political stability in it depends on this. Therefore, the problem of income distribution in society occupies one of the main places in macroeconomics.

Recently, there has been a growth in the Russian economy and an increase in the incomes of Russian citizens, on the basis of which conclusions are often made regarding the improvement of the socio-economic situation in the country. However, upon a detailed examination of Russian society, it turns out that the state of affairs in the social sphere is not as clear as it seems, and sometimes it is simply difficult. This is evidenced by the socio-psychological state of Russians, the nature of the problems that our fellow citizens face, as well as the specifics of their experiences and fears.

More than 16% of the working population often feel fear about the future due to their work situation. It turns out that the point is not only that Russians, who live with a sense of fear because of the situation at work, are simply afraid of losing their jobs, but that even if they have a job, this part of Russians belongs to the least prosperous segments of the population.

And in order to mitigate inequality in the distribution of income between different segments of the population, the state must pursue social policy, the main content of which should be the redistribution of income between categories of the population.

Chapter 1 Income of the population

1.1 Factorial distribution of income

Income is the total amount of money earned or received by people over a given period (usually a year).

There are four types of income: wages, interest, rent and profit.

The first type of income is wages.

In competitive labor markets, the price of labor, i.e. wages are established as a competitive equilibrium of supply and demand for various categories of workers, by type of work, by the presence or absence of trade unions, influencing the demand and supply of labor and seeking to increase their pay for the employed part of the workers. In the market price system, wages are a particularly important category also because they reach approximately? national income of developed countries. The regulation of many processes in the economy is associated with the movement of wages. For example, one of the indicators of the inflation rate is the gap between real and nominal wages. Nominal wages are the amount of cash payments, while real wages are determined by the level of prices for goods and services purchased at any given moment with the monetary amount of wages.

In most cases, differences in wages depend on the professionalism of workers and the work they perform. Differences in pay are determined by the quality of the functions performed, as well as the fact that the work can be pleasant or unpleasant, complex or simpler. The wage supplement increases the basic rate for work performed at night, in unfavorable or unhealthy conditions. Highly skilled labor is rewarded with higher wages. Significant differences in wages can occur in the absence of competition between strictly professional groups of workers, for example, between dancers and mathematicians, etc.

In general, if there is a competitive environment in labor markets, then the level of wages is set under the influence of mutually balancing supply and demand for labor. But the real situation often differs from the ideal conditions of a fully competitive labor market. On the one hand, this is due to the policies of employers in the field of hiring workers and setting wages, and on the other hand, due to the monopolistic tendencies of labor generated by actions. As a result, market equilibrium can be disrupted either by rising wages and increasing unemployment, or by increasing employment and inflation of nominally rising and actually declining wages.

Wages are included in production costs and cause an increase in commodity prices for manufactured products, which may result in a decrease in consumer demand.

The second type of income is interest.

Interest is a factor income that the owner of capital receives.

Interest as a return on capital assets is higher, the higher the productivity of real economic goods represented by capital assets as factors of production.

Complex production processes at the current moment or for their implementation in the future require the accumulation of funds, which, as they are invested in real capital, will be highly productive, and therefore will bring higher income in the future. It is for this purpose that capital is accumulated and invested. An effective investment project is a project whose annual income is not lower than the market interest rate for any other capital asset, including the bank interest rate.

Interest is the price paid for the use of money.

Factors influencing loan interest:

Loan size;

Loan term;

Bank risk;

Number of banks;

Refinancing rate.

The real interest rate is the nominal interest rate minus the expected inflation rate (in %). The nominal interest rate is the interest rate calculated at the current price rate.

The third type of income is rent.

We already know that any factor produces rent if it is paid higher than would be necessary to supply that factor. Economic rent exists where there are restrictions in the supply of a resource. Since land is available in limited quantities, it therefore brings in land rent. Land rent is income from the use of land. The supply of land is completely inelastic. Demand for land depends on technology in the industries that use land, as well as on the demand for agricultural products. The value of land rent is determined by the intersection of the supply and demand curve. With an increase in demand for agricultural products, the marginal profitability of land increases, this leads to an increase in land rent, but does not increase the supply of land, since the amount of fertile land is limited. Consequently, land rent does not perform an incentive function, because whatever it is, society has the same amount of land suitable for agricultural production. Therefore, from the point of view of society, land rent is called a surplus: it could be neglected, and this would not in any way affect the economic potential of the country.

And the fourth type of income is profit.

Modern economic thought views profit as income from the use of factors of production, i.e. labor, land and capital.

Denying profit as a result of exploitation, the following definitions of profit can be distinguished: firstly, it is a payment for the services of entrepreneurial activity; secondly, this is a payment for innovation, for talent in managing a company; thirdly, it is a payment for risk, for the uncertainty of the results of entrepreneurial activity. Risk may be associated with the choice of one or another managerial, scientific, technical or social decision, with one or another variant of natural and climatic conditions.

For a company, profit margin is of great importance. The amount of profit for the year is compared either with the annual turnover of the company or with its capital.

1.2 Normal and excess inequality

Economic inequality characterizes economic processes in two different directions. On the one hand, the distribution of income is formed as a result of the interaction of diverse mechanisms that determine the observed movement of cash flows and their fragmentation into various types of income of different segments of the population. At the same time, income inequality develops depending on the distribution and conditions of ownership, disposal and management rights, which determine what shares of added value in sectors of the economy and in the economy as a whole go to wages, payments of rental income and other payments.

On the other hand, economic inequality characterizes the conditions in which motives are formed and modes of economic and social behavior are chosen. The high scale of general inequality can be due to two diametrically opposed reasons: firstly, the high intensity of social competition and, secondly, the institutionally determined advantages of the position of some social strata in relation to others. The institutional structure determines in which sectors of the economy the conditions for generating income of one kind or another are most favorable and, thereby, motivates the struggle for property rights in these industries and the redistribution of financial flows in favor of these industries.

Thus, economic inequality characterizes processes in the economy in a context that reveals direct and inverse dependencies between the motivation of people’s economic behavior, the conditions in which this behavior is implemented, and the mechanisms of economic and social action. Economic inequality can be considered as a kind of barometer of the economy, measuring the pressure of internal forces under the influence of which the economy grows or, on the contrary, falls into stagnation and decline.

There are two types of inequality: normal and excessive.

Conceptually, the definitions of normal and excessive inequality depend on two aspects: the social justification of inequality and its impact on economic growth.

Socially justified inequality can be defined as such inequality in which each citizen can fully realize all his human functions, including economic and social functions.

Inequality that is optimal for economic growth can be defined as inequality that, firstly, ensures the full use of human potential, secondly, such a distribution of human potential in the economy and society, in which the productivity of the economy is maximum, and, thirdly, ensures high rate of reproduction of human potential.

Normal inequality can be defined as inequality that is both socially justifiable and optimal for economic growth. Normal inequality is the maximum possible inequality without absolute poverty and with socially and economically justified relative poverty.

Excessive inequality violates both the requirements of social justification and the requirements of creating preconditions for economic growth. Excessive inequality reflects the inability of society to equally use the economic potential of all working-age groups of the population and to provide an acceptable standard of living to groups of the population in need of social support.

Establishing normal inequality is an institutional problem. The market does not provide equality of opportunity. The market, unconstrained by non-market redistributive institutions, leads to an unlimited increase in economic inequality, allowing the coexistence of very low and very high incomes and making inequality excessive. But insufficient income limits the ability to perform a variety of human functions, and thereby the market creates inequality of opportunity. When, under conditions of economic inequality, opportunities depend only on the monetary resources available to one or another individual and other driving factors, social selection turns into selection of the worst, which in the long term leads to the degradation of society.

Developed democracies have long created institutions for state income redistribution that compensate for market inequality. This was due to an understanding of what social prerequisites are necessary for sustainable long-term economic growth. A free market requires a supporting physical, social, psychological, educational and organizational infrastructure, as well as a certain amount of social cohesion in society. In Russia, the institutions that provide the totality of these conditions necessary for the successful functioning of a market economy are extremely poorly developed.

Structural changes in the formation of monetary incomes of the population were accompanied by a change in the distribution of the population in terms of average per capita income. In 2006, with an increase in average per capita income compared to the previous year to 123.5% and nominal wages - up to 124.5%, the share of the population with average per capita income over 12,000 rubles increased by 8.5%, in the range of 12,000 - 6,000 rubles - by 3.6%, and with incomes up to 6,000 rubles decreased by more than 12%. With increasing incomes of the population, there was a steady reduction in poverty levels. The share of people with monetary incomes below the subsistence level in 2006 decreased to 22.5 million people, which amounted to 15.8% of the total population compared to 25.2 million people (17.6%) in 2004. However, this did not weaken the socio-economic differentiation of the population by income.

The specifics of income distribution also determined the characteristics of the dynamics of current expenses and the level of savings in the household sector. The increase in the purchasing power of the population determined the continued high growth rates of retail trade turnover. The increase in trade turnover in 2006, as in previous years, was dominated by the rapid growth of the market for non-food products and paid services to the population.

With the acceleration of the growth rate of real incomes of the population since the second half of 2005, a tendency towards restoration of the propensity to save has emerged. The investment activity of the population in housing construction remained a factor constraining the use of savings for current consumption. In 2006, the supply of residential space built by the population at their own expense and with the help of loans increased by 13.1% against 9.3% in 2005. The influence of this factor on the nature of the use of household income is determined both by the level of household income and housing prices, as well as by the general economic situation and the investment environment.

It should be noted that the increase in wages of hired workers in the income structure occurred against the backdrop of maintaining high differentiation of average wages by type of economic activity. In industry, the degree of wage differentiation was determined by the increasing gap in the rate of wages in mining and manufacturing industries. Nominal accrued wages in mining were 2.2 times higher than the average level in the economy, including 2.4 times in the extraction of fuel and energy resources. In education and healthcare, the average salary was 63 - 75% of the economic average level.

Features of remuneration for labor by type of economic activity had a significant impact on the formation of the structure of income and expenses of the population. (Figure 1, Table 1)

1.3 Standard of living of the population

Income must create certain conditions to maintain living standards. The concept of “standard of living” can be defined as the provision of the population with material and spiritual goods necessary for life or the degree to which people’s needs for these goods are satisfied. The set of goods necessary for life includes such needs as working conditions, education, healthcare, quality of food, housing, etc. The standard of living can be considered at the global level (for the population as a whole) and in a differentiated context (for individual groups of the population). The first approach allows for a comparative analysis of the standard of living of the population in different countries based on GDP per capita. This figure is highest in the USA, Scandinavian countries, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Japan. Russia ranks 71st in the world in terms of living standards. However, this indicator is an average and does not fully reflect the uneven distribution of income among certain categories of people.

Comparison of living standards across population groups (second approach) is based on consumer budgets. The family budget is the total income of all family members. There is a budget for minimum material security, a budget for the average family, a budget for high incomes, a budget for pensioners and other groups of the population.

The minimum material security is the subsistence level, or the “poverty line.” All population groups living below the poverty line are considered poor. The poverty line rises largely due to rising prices and does not reflect growth in consumption.

In accordance with the Federal Law “On the Living Wage in the Russian Federation” (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, 1997, No. 43, Art. 4904), the Government of the Russian Federation decides:

To establish, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, the cost of living for the Russian Federation as a whole for the fourth quarter of 2004 per capita at 2,451 rubles, for the working population - 2,690 rubles, pensioners - 1,849 rubles, children - 2,394 rubles.

In 2007, the cost of living was 3879 rubles, for the working population - 4197 rubles, pensioners - 3085 rubles, children - 3704 rubles. (Table 2)

The consumer basket for the main socio-demographic groups of the population (working-age population, pensioners, children) for the Russian Federation as a whole is determined at least once every five years. For example, the minimum consumer basket of food consists of the following components: potatoes 107 kg per year, sugar - 20 kg per year, eggs - 166 pieces, etc.

In addition to food, the minimum consumer basket also includes non-food products (for example, the number of hosiery items per able-bodied person is definitely 5 pieces per year, school and writing products for adults - 3 pieces per year, for children - 26 pieces) and services (payment of housing, transport services, etc.) (Table 3)

According to scientists, the Russian minimum consumer basket is 30% of the biological norm of survival. The cost of living, determined by the consumer basket, must be at least 4,000 rubles per person per month (this does not include costs for training, recreation and entertainment).

According to official statistics in Russia, 20% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2004. In addition to the absolute poverty line in economics, its relative value is also calculated, which is determined by social and cultural conditions.

The budget for the average family is determined by middle class income. The consumer basket for this category of the population includes a house, a car, a dacha, modern housing design, the opportunity to travel, educate children, and the availability of securities and jewelry. The middle class consists of wealthy people, i.e. figuratively speaking, not rich and not poor. In Russia, the middle class includes people with an income of at least $1,500 per month. In world practice, countries in which the population spends no more than 20% of their income are considered developed. In Russia, the poor spend everything they receive on food, and the middle class spends more than 30%.

High income budget. The rich in Russia are those people whose families have at least 40 thousand rubles per person per month. The ratio of the income of the 10% of families with the highest income to the income of the 10% of families with the lowest income is called the decile, or structural. In 2004, it was 14 in the country.

social security poverty income

1.4 Regional differentiation of income of the population

Regional differentiation of per capita income (API) is an important problem of socio-economic development both at the regional and macroeconomic levels.

Firstly, the regional distribution of gross (total) income of the population, and, consequently, such indicators of economic development as consumer spending and demand for goods and services, depends on the regional differentiation of the DNI. In statistical practice, the average per capita monetary income of the population (per month) is calculated by dividing the annual volume of monetary income by 12 and the average annual population. From an economic point of view, the annual volume of gross DIT is the sum of the incomes of the population living in the region. Accordingly, the region’s gross DNI can be considered as the product of the number and average per capita income. At the same time, the ratio of population in the regions is much more stable than the ratio of average per capita income. Therefore, changes in regional differentiation of per capita income of the population are the main factor in changes in the regional distribution of gross DNI.

Secondly, the share of savings in household income, the structure and dynamics of household investments, as well as the structure of consumer spending and demand for goods and services in the regions and in Russia as a whole depend on the regional differentiation of household incomes. It is known, for example, that as household incomes increase, the share of food expenses in their consumer expenditures falls and the propensity to save increases. Accordingly, the structure of consumer demand can vary greatly by region, affecting the structure of consumption of products and services at the regional and macro levels.

Thirdly, regional income differentiation is of great political importance, especially in a country with such a complex state-administrative structure as Russia. Many of its regions are sub-federal national-state entities with specific development problems, interests and ways to achieve their goals. However, “non-national” subjects of the Russian Federation also have significant opportunities to influence decision-making at the federal level. Although regional differences in income levels are inevitable, the dispersion of their values across regions gives rise to socio-political tension and is an independent problem of public policy.

Fourthly, regional differentiation of population incomes is of interest from the point of view of social policy, i.e. policies aimed at preventing excessive social inequality and poverty.

Social inequality refers to such a high differentiation of the level of well-being and standard of living of various groups of society that the possibility of representatives of low-income groups moving to higher-income groups depends little on the abilities of individuals and their efforts.

The most important aspect of the problem of poverty is its regional differentiation. The share of the population with incomes below the subsistence level decreased from 29% in 2000 to 17.8% in 2004. However, the value of the poverty index for Russia as a whole is not consistent with its values for the regions. Thus, in 2000, the arithmetic average for 79 regions (the Chechen Republic is excluded here due to lack of data, as well as the constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are part of other constituent entities) the poverty index value was 38% (which is 9% higher than the official indicator), in 2004 - 23.3% (5.5% higher than the official figure).

The arithmetic average for all regions of the poverty index in a particular year was calculated as follows. First, the population with monetary incomes below the subsistence level in each region was calculated by multiplying the poverty index in the region by the average annual population in the corresponding year. Then the obtained values were summed up and divided by the total population of 79 regions. In other words, the total population in all regions with monetary incomes below the subsistence level was correlated with the total population of Russia. At the same time, the all-Russian population with monetary incomes below the subsistence level (calculated by multiplying the official poverty index by the average annual population) turned out to be 12.9 million people less than calculated using the above method in 2000; in 2004 - by 7.8 million people.[12, p.35-55]

In connection with the above, questions arise about how the poverty index for Russia as a whole is calculated and why it differs so much from the arithmetic average of the poverty index for all regions? The reason, apparently, is that the cost of living, which represents the cost estimate of the consumer basket, as well as mandatory payments and fees in accordance with Federal Law of October 24, 1997 No. 134-FZ “On the cost of living in the Russian Federation”, in Russia as a whole it is established by Federal Law, and in its constituent entities - by the legislative bodies of the Russian Federation. The population with incomes below the subsistence minimum is determined on the basis of data on the distribution of the population by average per capita monetary income and is the result of their comparison with the subsistence minimum. As a result of the independent living wages in the regions and in Russia as a whole, such a significant anomaly arises.

The main reasons for the regional differentiation of the average per capita nominal monetary income of the population (NAMI) are the uneven distribution of productive forces across the country and the resulting differences in the professional and qualification composition of employees of enterprises and institutions. In addition, the income of the population varies by region due to differences in the age and gender structure of the population. First of all, we are talking about the proportion of children and pensioners in the total population. The historical provision of the population of regions with land and other natural resources, as well as movable property, is also different. Thus, regional differentiation of household incomes is largely derived from the differentiation of household incomes in the economy as a whole and the territorial location of production and financial institutions. An important role in determining the income of the population is played by the structure of production, including the share of the agricultural, industrial and information sectors of the economy in the total volume of production of the gross regional product.

There is an additional reason for the increasing differentiation of incomes of the population, namely the positive feedback “average per capita income - consumer demand and savings - the level of economic development and tax revenues to the budget - the amount of wages and social support to the population - average per capita income.” In the leading regions, high per capita incomes of the population reduce the poverty index and allow regional authorities to ensure a normal level of income for employees of budgetary organizations and people in need of social assistance. At the same time, in some regions, the combination of most of the above conditions for socio-economic development is so unfavorable that a stalemate occurs in the regional socio-economic system: high unemployment and low utilization of production capacity impede the implementation of new investments on a technologically progressive basis. Therefore, when formulating the tasks of socio-economic policy, it is necessary to take into account the presence of such a connection. In other words, in order to create conditions for increasing the income of the population in depressed areas, it is necessary to ensure some acceptable level of these incomes. For example, the payment of transfers should be made from the federal budget in amounts that do not depend on the income of the corresponding territorial budgets.

When analyzing the differentiation of the population's cash income (PCI), it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the methodology for calculating indicators of nominal and real PCI. The primary statistical indicator is the nominal monetary income of the population. Indicators of monetary income of the population are calculated by dividing the NDNI by nominal income deflator indices calculated on the basis of consumer price indices (CPI).

Of no less interest is the analysis of income dynamics in the entire set of regions, with their division into groups of regions with relatively high and low incomes. The set of regions was divided into three groups. Group I included regions with values of real income of the population in 1993 higher than the arithmetic average for Russia as a whole (3890 rubles); Group II includes regions with RDD values below the arithmetic average (RUB 3,781), and Group III includes the remaining regions.

Similarly, all regions were divided into three groups (A, B, C) in 2005 - according to the arithmetic mean (5487 rubles) and average median (4813 rubles) real monetary incomes per capita.

Subgroup I - A (the highest group) includes almost all regions (12) that make up group A. The last group includes three regions that form subgroup III - A (Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), St. Petersburg and the Republic of Bashkortostan). The northern and Far Eastern regions made up almost half of subgroup I - A: Tyumen, Tomsk, Magadan, and Sakhalin regions and the Komi Republic.

Subgroup I - B includes regions that moved to the middle group in 2005. These are mainly the northern regions, as well as the Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk territories.

And finally, the largest subgroup I - B, which included 15 regions with a qualitative decrease in the relative level of the population's RDD. Along with the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (with an RD index for the period of 29%) and the Kamchatka region (61%), the Republic of Khakassia (71%), the Jewish Autonomous Okrug (90%), the Chita region (90%) and the Republic of Kalmykia (48%) in The subgroup included the Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kursk regions, in which the RDD did not decrease, as well as the Oryol, Ryazan, Bryansk, Kurgan, Ulyanovsk and Penza regions, in which the RDD decreased to 77 - 98% of the 1993 level.

Group II is small - it included only seven regions, none of which moved to the highest group in 2005, and only the Irkutsk region was included in subgroup II - B. Subgroup II - B included six regions with moderate growth rates of RDD in general during the period.

Subgroup III - B (the lowest) includes 32 regions, including Primorsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia.

In general, the analysis allows us to draw the following conclusions:

1). Regional differentiation of the average per capita monetary income of the population in Russia is very high and represents an important problem of socio-economic policy. Its most important task is to counteract the effect of self-reinforcing poverty in regions with unfavorable conditions for the population to receive income from employment.

2). Regional differentiation of DND affects indicators of social inequality and poverty.

3). The regional differentiation of nominal and real monetary incomes of the population was very significant and was accompanied by significant shifts in the regional distribution of income of the population. Many regions that were previously leaders in this indicator have lost their previous importance, while others, on the contrary, have increased their rank relative to other regions.

4). Regional differentiation of DPT is largely explained by differences in price levels.

Chapter 2 Social policy in the Russian Federation

Increasing income differentiation necessitates social protection of the population. Social protection of the population is a system of measures that protect any citizen of the country from economic and social degradation in the event of a sharp reduction in income (as a result of unemployment, illness, disability, birth of a child, old age). The need to provide medical services and benefits to families with children under 16 years of age is also taken into account. The share of social protection spending depends on economic capacity and varies across countries. The highest share of social spending is in Sweden - 33% of GNI, in France - 29%, Germany - 24%. In Russia, this share is an insignificant part - 0.9% of GDP in 2005.

In the economy of any country, the implementation of social protection measures involves the creation of a legal framework, the development and implementation of social programs, as well as their financing.

The social protection system includes the following areas:

1). Creating conditions for an effective employment system:

a) encouraging territorial and professional mobility of labor;

b) assistance in training and retraining of personnel (for example, in developed countries tax incentives are provided to enterprises that retrain their employees);

c) the use of non-standard types of employment (part-time, temporary, homework, self-employment);

d) unemployment insurance;

e) creation of normal working conditions.

2) Establishment of social norms and standards (living wage, minimum wage).

3) Making transfer payments or social payments. Transfer payments are free government subsidies aimed at supporting low-income families and carried out through tax contributions to the budget. These include unemployment benefits, pensions, scholarships, benefits for single mothers, childbirth benefits, and children under 16 years of age. In developed countries, assistance is also provided in non-monetary form (for example, the food stamp program).

4) Indexation of fixed incomes, meaning partial compensation by the state for monetary losses of the population due to inflationary depreciation of income. Indexation is carried out by recalculating fixed income in accordance with the growth of the consumer price index.

5) Protection of consumer interests and other measures

The United Nations, sensing the threat of global poverty and inequality, at the ILO conference in 2003, set itself a number of goals for the first decades of the 21st century:

Reduce the proportion of people worldwide living in extreme poverty due to low incomes;

Provide universal primary education;

Overcome disparities in primary and secondary education between men and women;

Reduce child mortality rates by two thirds;

Reduce maternal mortality by three quarters;

Ensure universal access to reproductive health services.

They began to fight poverty a long time ago. At the beginning of the 21st century, to formulate an effective strategy to combat poverty, all previously proposed strategies were developed, supported by the data obtained. The following areas of the poverty alleviation strategy are identified:

The first direction is the creation of economic opportunities. This direction is fundamental. This direction focuses on material opportunities, such as jobs, credit, roads, energy supplies, markets for products, as well as schools, water supply, sanitation and health services necessary to maintain health, and the acquisition of professional qualifications, which in turn a queue is necessary to get a job.

The second direction is empowering the poor. This direction involves the selection and implementation of government policies aimed at meeting the needs of specific sections of the poor, dependent on the interaction of political, social and other institutional processes. It is important to eliminate social and institutional problems for employment associated with the divisions of people based on gender, ethnicity or social status. Building strong institutions that are responsive to people's needs not only benefits the poor, but is also fundamental to the overall process of economic growth.

The third direction is increasing material security. It is closely related to material well-being and its preservation at least at the achieved level. Reducing the vulnerability of the poor to economic shocks, natural disasters, diseases, disabilities, and personal violence - all this is an integral element of material well-being and a condition for encouraging investment in human capital and in high-risk, but also high-return activities. The latter are possible if there is a significant development of the professional qualification level of workers from poor sections of the population.

Designing policies and institutions to help create more opportunities for the poor requires complementary measures to stimulate overall economic growth, harness markets to benefit the poor, and enhance their resources, including addressing deep-rooted inequalities in the distribution of goods such as education.

By now, the old principle is coming to the fore: the poor must be helped first of all by themselves; for this, work must become a means of combating poverty and bring dividends of decent work.

Investments and technological innovations are the main factors in the growth of employment and labor income, and job creation. Poverty can only be eradicated if the economy provides the conditions for investment, entrepreneurship, and sustainable income.

Promoting private investment requires reducing the risk of private investors through stable fiscal and monetary policies, stable investment regimes, healthy financial systems, and a clear and transparent business environment. But besides this, it is also necessary to ensure the rule of law and take measures to combat corruption, that is, to solve the problems of a business environment based on bribes, subsidies to large investors, deals on preferential terms and privileged monopolies.

Private investment needs to be complemented by public investment to increase competitiveness and create new market opportunities. Of particular importance are additional government investments in the development of infrastructure and communications, as well as in improving the skills of the workforce.

International markets offer enormous opportunities to generate employment and income growth in agriculture, industry and services.

In the Russian Federation, in this regard, the Federal Law of July 17, 1999 No. 178-FZ “On State Social Assistance” was adopted (as amended by the Federal Law of August 22, 04 No. 122-FZ) regarding the provision of necessary medicines for doctor’s prescriptions for certain categories of citizens, carried out in accordance with the legislation on compulsory social insurance.

Also, the legislation on state social assistance consists of the law “On the subsistence minimum in the Russian Federation”.

State social assistance is provided in order to maintain the standard of living of low-income families, as well as low-income citizens living alone, whose average per capita income is below the subsistence level established in the relevant constituent entity of the Russian Federation; reducing the level of social inequality; increasing incomes of the population.

The growth of dynamism in social life and economic development, the rapid development of globalization processes has entailed a decrease in stability, a threat to the established order of things and, consequently, a weakening of the socio-economic security of the population.

A key aspect of the socio-economic security of the population is security in the world of work. For the vast majority of the population, it is the sphere of work that is the main source of income and at the same time the most important field of personal self-realization. The position in this area determines a person’s social status, his self-esteem and overall satisfaction with life. The growing precarity of workers has a negative impact on the quality of human potential and the possibilities for its implementation. In addition, the predominant part of the total active time fund for the employed population is time spent at work.

In the case of Russia, the importance of guarantees provided in the labor sphere is especially great due to several additional circumstances.

Firstly, the rapid extensive development of the economy during the Soviet period contributed to the involvement of the maximum share of the population (including women) in social production. As a result, Russia achieved a relatively high level of economic activity and employment by international standards, which has largely been maintained to this day. Secondly, the low level of labor income encourages a significant part of the employed to work more, both at their main job and in additional employment. Thirdly, the underdevelopment of the system of social shock absorbers and the virtual absence of basic income guarantees bring the “income security” indicator primarily to the labor sphere.

Security in the world of work is an integral category that includes a number of aspects. These include guarantees of maintaining the occupied workplace and the possibility of alternative employment in the event of its loss, as well as guarantees of maintaining certain characteristics of the workplace that are valuable to the employee.

Job security guarantees. A comparison of the data allows us to conclude that the subjective assessment of the severity of the threat of job loss is quite closely related to both the general economic situation and the situation in the specific labor segment with which the employee is associated.

According to social security data for the Russian population in 2002, slightly more than half of workers were confident that they would be able to keep their jobs within the next 12 months.

The assessment of the likelihood of job loss depends on the age of the employee. Workers aged 25-39 are most confident in job stability, among whom only 11.3% feel a serious threat of job loss. The least - representatives of the older age group (50 -64). For them, the corresponding figure reaches 21.5%. Men assume the possibility of losing their job somewhat more often than women.

In the conditions of the Russian labor market, a distinctive feature of which is the widespread development of informal relations and procedures, including within formal structures, the subjective perception of the level of security significantly diverges from generally accepted objective indicators.

The main formal indicators characterizing institutional guarantees of job retention are considered to be the prevalence of non-standard forms of employment and the cruelty of the dismissal procedure. From a formal point of view, the Russian labor market appears to be unjustifiably regulated. The share of employees on a basis other than permanent contracts does not exceed 10%.

The specifics of the Russian labor market are manifested in the widespread number of layoffs. In Russia, throughout the entire period of reforms, the share of workers formally leaving enterprises due to layoffs remained significantly lower than the actual reduction of jobs.

Thus, given the formal regulation of the labor market and the cruelty of the dismissal procedure, the actual security of job security guarantees is not high.

Protection against unfair dismissal. In general, only a little more than a quarter of the workers surveyed are convinced that the majority of members of the workforce of the enterprises where they are employed are protected from unfair dismissal.

Protection against unfair dismissal is greatest in state-owned enterprises.

Labor market situation and family well-being. For workers who declare high satisfaction with their salaries and for those who are completely dissatisfied with the level of remuneration for their work, the contribution of their earnings to the well-being of the family is equally significant. This suggests that the low labor income of such workers in most cases is little compensated by the earnings of other family members and other household income.

2.2 Development and problems of social policy in the Russian Federation

The reforms of the 1990s caused a persistent anti-reform syndrome among the majority of Russians, which led to a wary, and in some cases obviously negative, attitude towards any transformations in the economic and social spheres. At the same time, in recent years, society has been forming a demand for a new quality of life and a demand to “return” the public sphere. All this led to a contradictory attitude of Russians towards this problem. On the one hand, the economic recovery of recent years and the favorable foreign economic situation, which resulted in an increase in real incomes of the population. On the other hand, there is an increase in Russians’ dissatisfaction with almost all aspects of social life, as recorded by mass polls.

Thus, when asked about how the state of affairs has changed in various spheres of life of Russian society during V. Putin’s presidency, out of 14 indicators, only 4 show positive changes (unemployment, opportunity to earn money, family support, pensions). In other areas, Russians either do not see any changes for the better or for the worse, or note a deterioration in the situation. On such aspects of life as poverty, social justice, the situation with preschool institutions, higher education, housing, ecology, safety, the share of critical assessments exceeds the share of positive ones by two to three times. People's dissatisfaction reflects the underestimation in the implemented social policy of many features of modern Russian reality. A logical question arises: why did the much worse situation of the late 1990s, accompanied by acute conflicts, not cause such pronounced discontent? There are several reasons.

In the mid and especially at the end of the 1990s, the majority of the population clearly understood that the country was in a deep crisis and could not seriously count on positive changes. Over the past 6 years, a lot has changed: the “post-default syndrome” has been overcome, a strong feeling has formed in society that a way out of the crisis is just around the corner, that it’s worth being patient a little longer and you can count on converting economic growth into an improvement in life. The country has a president who enjoys the support of the majority of citizens, who also issued the cry “Everyone to fight poverty!” Accordingly, the level of social aspirations has grown so much that the existing level of material and social status does not meet society’s new demands for the level and quality of life.

Meanwhile, there have been no noticeable changes in the standard of living of the majority of Russians for a considerable time, as evidenced by data on the stability of the social structure of society and its material well-being. In recent years, the entire increase in real income of the population has gone to compensate for the degradation of the property potential of households, which occurred in the difficult 1990s, and not to actually improve the quality of life of the population.

Indicative in this regard are the sharp fluctuations in assessments of quality aspects of life over the past 6 years. Thus, from the moment V.V. Putin was elected president of the country (in 2000), in just three years (by 2003), the number of those who believed that the situation with the population’s standard of living was improving had more than tripled - from 6% to 21%. At the same time, the share of those who believed that it was getting worse remained virtually unchanged and amounted to 23% in 2000 and 25% in 2003. In the next three years the situation changed noticeably. The share of Russians who note improvement is almost the same, but those who report worsening increased from 25% to 32%. This reflects the emerging disappointment with the insufficient pace of improvement of the situation and the growing expectations of the population.

The situation with personal safety is almost the opposite. The peak of negative assessments occurred in 2003 (32%), and by 2006 the share of those assessing the situation in the field of personal security as worsening dropped to 25%.

Among the reasons for the growth of dissatisfaction among Russians in recent years, one should mention the wary attitude of our fellow citizens towards any social innovations of the authorities, which noticeably increased after the monetization of benefits. Today, many people have the feeling that the announced social programs mean nothing more than shifting the burden of responsibility for their decisions onto the citizens themselves, precisely in those areas and areas where Russians do not particularly count on the state. First of all, in pensions (85%), the fight against poverty (74%), medicine (68%) and education (both higher and secondary - 64%).

Among the modern functions of the state, the function of providing a legal framework and social atmosphere is distinguished, which contributes to the effective functioning of the economic system, as well as the function of redistributing income and wealth, which helps reduce the differentiation of inequality among different segments of the population in society. The state regulates the level of income of business agents.

Because of this, among the various methods of state regulation of income of the population, legislative methods occupy an important place. They include, on the one hand, the development, and on the other hand, the implementation in practice of the regulatory framework for income policy. Without appropriate regulations, it is impossible to implement tax, social, and budget policies. All economic methods of influencing the income of the population (determining the minimum wage, tax rates and tax base, types of taxes, etc.) are applied only after they are laid down in legislation.

The primary point of legislative regulation of income can be considered the creation of a regulatory framework for the impact on wages, business profits, rent and interest payments to the population. Modern practice is characterized by the creation of laws and other acts at various levels - from local (within the framework of a single enterprise) to international. The object of international legal regulation is, first of all, such type of income as wages. This position has a completely objective basis, since, firstly, the majority of the world’s population are hired workers, whose wages are the main source of income, and, secondly, in the structure of income of the population of developed countries, wages account for a significant part of national income.

The problem of legislative regulation of income levels at the international level is that the implementation of adopted acts is directly difficult. Acts are adopted by international organizations, but real implementation of their provisions is possible only at the state level or at the level of regional associations.

Forms and methods of regulating social processes.

I. State regulation of income distribution.

The formation of total income of the population covers their production, distribution, redistribution and use. Income distribution is formed at the stage of formation of income of owners of production factors (functional distribution). Personal distribution of nominal income is the result of redistribution. Passing through the family budget, the volume of per capita income changes depending on the size and structure of families, the ratio of dependents and persons with independent income. The amount of real income depends on the parameters of the inflation process. The main channel for the redistribution of income is government regulation of this process. Tax systems and government transfers (cash and in kind), social security and insurance systems, etc. show that the modern state is involved in large-scale income redistribution activities.

Any form of government regulation (including social) consists of material, institutional and conceptual components. Let us note that social regulation is not the exclusive privilege of the state; it covers not only the redistribution of income, but also other indicators of living standards. The objects of social regulation are environmental protection and protection of consumer rights. Social regulation is carried out by business units, trade unions, churches and other non-governmental organizations. The material basis of state regulation depends on the volume of national production and the share of it that is redistributed centrally, through the state budget. The institutional framework is related to the organization of the redistribution process and the activities of relevant institutions. The conceptual basis of government regulation is a theory that acquires the status of government doctrine.

Alternative conceptual approaches to government redistribution of income can be reduced to the problem of contrasting equality and efficiency.

State redistribution of income is carried out through budgetary and financial regulation. The state, in accordance with social policy priorities and existing special social programs, provides social payments in the form of cash and in-kind transfers, as well as services. Social benefits and services are varied. They are differentiated by sources of formation and methods of financing, and the conditions for providing them to the circle of recipients. Cash payments are associated with compensation for loss (reduction) of income as a result of: complete or partial loss of ability to work, birth of children, loss of breadwinners or work (unemployment benefits, compensation for retraining costs and other payments to the unemployed). Cash social benefits are complemented by fully or partially free health care, education, housing and transport services. All social transfers can be one-time or paid periodically over a specified period of time. The amount of social benefits may depend on the legally established minimum per capita income or wage. Social transfers can take the form of tax rebates. All social payments are registered in the social insurance and social security system, supplemented by state charity.

In countries with a market economy, financing of these areas is carried out on a tripartite basis (state, employers and recipients of funds), and in countries with an administrative command economy - centrally. Real incomes of the population were formed mainly from wages and income from public consumption funds (PCF). The distribution of general physical training was carried out on a free or partially paid basis in accordance with the quantity and quality of labor contribution to social production, as well as taking into account need.

There are various options for combining public and private branches of social payments. The goal of social policy is to encourage all forms of business activity, primarily labor and entrepreneurial activity. Labor activity is manifested in an increase in the degree of use of labor reserves, growth in employment and labor productivity, entrepreneurial activity is reflected in the volume and structure of investments. Being objectively interconnected, these forms of activity are carried out at any given moment by different subjects who have different motivational models of behavior. As a result, the government regulatory system must simultaneously support income and create incentives to increase business activity of all market entities.

Income indexation.

In economically developed countries, indexation of household incomes is one of the forms of government regulation, along with the tax system and price policy. For some types of income (mainly wages of employees), it was introduced after the Second World War, during a period of sharp rise in prices, although the UK, USA, Norway, Austria have been using indexation since the 20s. Currently, income indexation due to price increases is practiced in 11 Western European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia. On a national scale, it is carried out in Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia: where it is fixed in agreements between entrepreneurs, trade unions and the state.

In other countries (USA, Japan, Switzerland, UK), income indexation occurs at the level of individual firms and individual industries, is not guaranteed and is carried out by agreement between entrepreneurs and trade unions. Germany, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, and Sweden do not have an indexation mechanism at all that guarantees an automatic increase in wages taking into account rising consumer prices. In these countries, the purchasing power of wages is maintained by revising tariff rates and salaries during periods of concluding new collective agreements, i.e., the compensation method is used.

Moscow's experience shows that orders for products for the needs of urban households and agriculture play an important role in replenishing regional budgets, supporting industrial production in the region and forming a constant source of budget replenishment.

The basis for regional regulation of population income is the principle of delimitation of powers and areas of competence between federal authorities and executive representative bodies of federal government.

The issue of fiscal federalism is acute in the relationship between the two levels of government, because it contains the bulk of the resource capabilities for ensuring social policy, both at the federal and regional levels.

Issues of reforming the federal budget and the budgets of the constituent entities of the federation that have not been fully resolved due to the economic crisis, the decline in production, and legislative uncertainty are becoming a stumbling block in the implementation of regional social income policy. To overcome these disagreements, coordinated and legally established relations are needed that determine the amount of transfers of funds to the federal budget by the constituent entities of the federation and the amount of transfers, subsidies, and subsidies sent from it to the constituent entities of the federation. Sometimes it comes to direct threats, when some representatives of the constituent entities of the federation are ready to refuse to fulfill their obligations to the budget of the Russian Federation, citing the fact that the center, in turn, does not fulfill its obligations to the constituent entities of the federation. In addition, federal subjects deny the possibility of commercial structures participating in transfer payments.

The need for the participation of federal subjects in the implementation of social policy of income and wages, i.e., in the redistribution of income and regulation of wages, is determined by the high level of differentiation in the regions. The average level of wages in the country does not, of course, reflect the full diversity of the current situation with its level in individual territories of the subjects.

I I The role of the state in regulating income.

Income regulation in all economic systems is an integral part of socio-economic policy aimed at increasing the income of the population, their standard of living, and optimizing market laws in order to develop the economy as a whole. The role of the state is realized through increasing the income of the population, which is ensured by the initiation of economic efficiency and production capacity, high employment of the population, as well as by regulating the activities of monopolistic enterprises in the field of pricing, especially for tariffs and energy.

The main method of regulating income and wages is legislative, including the development and adoption of legislative and regulatory acts. Among the significant legislative acts for regulating income can be noted: the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Civil Code, the Labor Code, decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and Decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Economic methods of regulation, in addition to regulation of the minimum wage, include tax policy, price regulation policy, and remuneration of public sector enterprises. In a market economy, the state, therefore, influences the level of income of the population through increasing the wages of employees of enterprises, civil servants, institutions and organizations employed in the public sector: teachers, cultural and healthcare workers. The growth of the minimum wage is determined by the financial capabilities of the economy, and since its size is proportional to the size of pensions, benefits and even fines, the justification of the minimum wage is of great socio-economic importance. Economic methods of regulation include fiscal policy, which determines tax revenues to the budget.

In addition to all of the above, the tax system acts as a kind of regulator of the redistribution of income of the population. This includes statutory taxes on individuals and tax breaks.

The next method of regulating income is the administrative method, which is based on the use of the forces of administrative and local government structures that operate through prohibitions, permissions and coercion. State authorities, for example, oblige enterprises to timely repair social infrastructure facilities, plant greenery in the surrounding area, improve working conditions, protect the environment, build treatment facilities, etc.

During the transition to a market economy, old administrative measures die out and new ones develop. Administrative measures arose to control the activities of monopolies and monopoly markets, control over the consumer qualities of products and goods, profit margins and price controls.

When generating income, the government is able to provide selective support to enterprises in knowledge-intensive industries, including the manufacturing industry - with direct investments or tax incentives.

By improving the tax system, the government is able to shift the tax burden onto the wealthy. For this purpose, progressive tax rates for persons with ultra-high incomes and tax reductions, and perhaps complete exemptions from income taxes, for persons with incomes below the subsistence level are used.

The government guarantees all its citizens the opportunity to receive vital social services provided by social institutions.

The presence of individual depressed cities and entire territories requires the state to spend federal budget expenditures in order to maintain the incomes of the population of these regions, which provides a subsidy reserve for these cases. Subsidy payments can be replaced by tax breaks for cities and territories recognized as depressed.

Let's look at the dynamics of the Gini coefficient in Russia. Thus, in the USSR in 1991 it was 0.260, and in 1993, after one year of radical economic transformations, it was already 0.398. In 1997, according to the Institute for Economic Problems in Transition, it decreased to 0.381. In 1999, the Gini coefficient was 0.398, which indicates increasing inequality in the distribution of total income in society. But already in 2000 it decreased and amounted to 0.371.

For comparison, the Gini coefficient was: in Japan -0.270; Sweden - 0.291; US 0.329; Brazil - 0.565; UK -0.297; Germany - 0.250.

In connection with Russia's transition to a market economy, the mechanism for the distribution of resources and income is accompanied by greater differentiation of the population's income, which is not observed during the period of the socialist economy. At the same time, income not declared by subjects of the shadow economy and ordinary citizens is not taken into account. Consequently, in the transition economy of Russia, the Gini coefficient may turn out to be even higher than the official figures. Periods of economic turmoil, high inflation, etc. are accompanied by an increase in the income gap between different groups of the population. Thus, in Russia in 1992 the ratio of incomes of the 10% of the most and least affluent population was 8.3 times, but already in 1999 it increased to 13.9 times.

In Russia, until the end of 1998, the poverty threshold was determined according to the scheme established at the beginning of market reforms in the years. Then it was done like this: the cost of the minimum set of products was taken and multiplied by a factor of 1.46. At the same time, we proceeded from the fact that a poor family in Russia spends on average 68.3% of the family budget on food; By multiplying the cost of this food set by a factor of 1.46, we obtained the cost of living wage. But this technique has increasingly come under criticism, which is deserved. After all, many poor families do not pay rent for six months or more, are unable to purchase the most necessary items of clothing and shoes, etc.

According to the new methodology, which was considered by the government in early November 1998, the cost of living is calculated on the basis of the real consumer basket. It includes not only a minimum of food products, but also a set of industrial goods, necessary services, and for the first time even some durable goods are included. The new version of the consumer basket contains 33 types of food products and 79 items that make up the minimum non-food set of goods for adults, and 69 items for children. In our case, we can estimate the level of poverty in Russia based on the poverty severity coefficient. According to the State Statistics Committee in Russia, at the beginning of large-scale economic reforms, namely in 1992, the household deficit amounted to 400 million rubles, but already in 1995 it amounted to 96 billion. rubles, and after the economic crisis in 1998 it amounted to 147 billion rubles, i.e. over 6 years the deficit increased several hundred times.

The study of social differentiation of the population is one of the urgent tasks for our economists, especially since the formation of market relations in the economy deepens the social stratification of society. Churchill, comparing capitalism and socialism, argued that capitalism is an unfair distribution of wealth, but socialism is a fair distribution of poverty. .

Conclusion

The problems in the social policy of the state discussed in the course work require immediate solutions. It is precisely because of social well-being that the efficiency of production and the well-being of the state depend. First of all, a normal standard of living must be created for ordinary citizens (the middle class). The state's social care for its citizens requires large financial investments. The seemingly invisible return on these investments will increase the well-being of not only the population, but also the state itself. How the state carries out social programs can be judged on the standard of living of the least affluent sections of society and what part this group of the population occupies in the total population of the country.

Therefore, effective social policy of the state is one of the primary tasks of the transition to market relations and the recovery of the Russian economy from the crisis. The real incomes of entrepreneurs, employees, teachers, cultural and healthcare workers depend on the concept of income policy adopted by the state.

The current social policy is characterized by spontaneity and often unsystematic behavior. Its essence boils down to attempts to neutralize existing social tensions. Government decisions to protect the population are lagging behind market ills. Meanwhile, the standard of living of the population is the most important indicator of the correctness of the economic course. The decline in the well-being of the population is unacceptable not only for humane reasons, but also for economic ones, since it undermines the incentives for effective activity. Therefore, social guarantees from the state are the most important factors in Russia’s successful transition to market relations.

Bibliography

1. Eliseeva. statistics. – M.: Finance and Statistics, 199 p.

2. Levashov policy of income and wages. - M.: Center for Economics and Marketing, 200 p.

3. Babich and municipal finance: a textbook for university students. - M.: Finance: UNITI, 2000 -687 p.

4. , Bru. Economics: principles, problems and policies. T.2 - M.: Rubrika, 199 p.

5. ,V. Nordhaus. Economics - M.: Binom-KioRus, 1992.-800 p.

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ABSTRACT

in the course "Economic Theory"

on the topic: “Population income and social policy of the state”

1. Income of the population and their differentiation

An integral component of economic policy is social policy, which is the purposeful activity of the state aimed at improving the standard of living of the population, providing legal protection, and creating social guarantees in society.

The objects of social policy are the living and working conditions of a person, social relations and the social structure as a whole.

Solving social policy problems primarily depends on the economic development of the country and ensuring the necessary rates of economic growth. Social policy presupposes the coverage of social activities by all socio-demographic segments of the population, as well as the timely response of government authorities to ongoing changes in the economic and social spheres of society's development.

The most important components of social policy are the policy of income regulation and social protection of the population.

In the socio-economic sense, the population’s income is understood as the totality of cash and in-kind funds, social payments and benefits received by the employee and his family members. Personal income serves as the basis for consumer demand; its volume reflects the population’s potential ability to purchase goods or pay for services. Nominal income characterizes the level of monetary income regardless of taxation and price changes. That is, this is the total amount of money received. Disposable income includes nominal income minus taxes and other obligatory payments, that is, funds used by the population for consumption and savings. Real incomes are net incomes adjusted for price changes.

The main sources of income for the population are factor (primary) incomes; cash payments and benefits from government assistance programs; receipts through the state's credit and financial system.

Factor (primary) incomes are represented by funds that owners of production factors (labor, capital, land, entrepreneurial abilities) receive from participation in a market economy in the form of wages, interest, rent, profit, dividends.

Cash payments and benefits from government assistance programs - transfer payments - have a significant impact on the formation of household incomes. There are three categories of transfer payments: subsidies (subventions) to entrepreneurs; payment of interest on public debt; pensions and benefits to the population for social needs.

State benefits to the population presented in the form of natural goods and services are called in-kind transfers. These include primarily medical care, education, and free food.

The third source of cash income for the population is income through the state’s financial and credit system. These include: national insurance payments; bank loans for individual housing construction; interest on bank deposits; income from increases in the value of stocks, bonds, lottery winnings, etc.; payment of various compensations for damage caused, etc.

Income regulation policy is a set of measures implemented by the state (priority areas) aimed at ensuring the most rational (fair) distribution of generated national income in order to achieve social stability, growth in the well-being of citizens and economic development.

The main objects of income regulation policy include: minimum wage; salaries in the public sector; regional wage regulation coefficients; system of prices and tariffs; a system of social partnership based on tripartite agreements on working conditions and wages between government representatives, entrepreneurs and trade unions.

In Russia, the situation with household incomes has changed radically compared to the pre-reform period. If previously the state exercised direct control over the income of the population, today there is liberalization of most of the income. The structure of sources of income has changed (Table 1).

Table 1. Structure of monetary income of the population of Russia in%

As can be seen from the table, market forms of income are intensively developing. Income from property (including interest, dividends, rent, from the sale of real estate and securities) and from entrepreneurship increased from 8.9% in 1990 to 22.2% of total income in 2008. The main source of income continues to be wages , despite the fact that its share in the income structure has decreased significantly. The ratio of the share of wages and social transfers in the monetary income of the population plays an important role in work motivation. When wages predominate in the formation of the total amount of income, initiative usually develops, and when the role of social transfers increases, the psychology of dependency begins to appear.

The dynamics of real incomes of the population is especially important. During the transition period in Russia, the level of real incomes declined sharply (the reasons for the fall in incomes are discussed in Chapter 27), and only since 2000 has there been a steady increase. Real cash incomes of the population in Russia as a percentage of the previous year were: in 1992 - 52.5; in 1995 - 83.9; in 1998 - 84; in 1999 - 88.2; in 2000 - 113.4; in 2005 - 110.1; in 2006 - 110.8; in 2007 - 114.6; in 2008 - 108.32.

Income regulation policies should also take into account the differentiation of incomes of the population. We consider income differentiation as a result of income distribution, expressing the degree of uneven distribution of benefits and manifested in the difference in the shares of income received by different groups of the population. Income differentiation plays the role of an economic stimulant, as it creates a person’s material interest in increasing the efficiency of using their capabilities. At the same time, excessive differentiation leads to income polarization, slows down the country's economic development, undermines trust in the main institutions of the state, and, moreover, can cause social conflicts in society.

Factors that shape income differentiation include; belonging to a class or social stratum of society (workers, intelligentsia), socio-professional status of workers (workers, specialists, people engaged in physical and mental labor, belonging to other professional groups that unite people by occupation), socio-settlement characteristics (city , village, territorial and national communities), demographic characteristics (gender, age, marital status, dependency, disability, etc.).

To quantify income differentiation, the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and fund coefficient are used.

The Lorenz curve expresses the degree of disproportionality in the distribution of income in a country, the deviation of the real distribution of income between different groups of the country's population from their equal distribution.

To characterize the distribution of total income between groups of citizens, the index of concentration of income of the population is also used - the Gini coefficient. This macroeconomic indicator characterizes the degree of deviation of the actual distribution of income from its absolutely equal distribution among the inhabitants of the country. That is, the Gini coefficient expresses the ratio of the shaded area of the OAS to the entire triangle OAB. In Russia, the Gini coefficient increased from 0.385 in 1996 to 0.408 in 2004, indicating an increase in income inequality. The greater the deviation of the Lorenz curve, the greater the Gini coefficient and the greater the degree of economic and social inequality in society.

An indicator of income differentiation is also the fund coefficient, which expresses the ratio between the average incomes of the 10% of the highest income citizens and the average incomes of the 10% of the lowest income.

If all citizens received the same income (a situation of absolute equality), then the Lorenz curve would merge with the diagonal straight line OA, and the Gini coefficient would be equal to zero. If only one person received all the income, and the rest had nothing (a situation of absolute inequality), then the Lorenz curve would merge with the BOTH angle and the Gini coefficient would be equal to one. Its value fluctuates within this interval. For many centuries, scientists have been discussing issues of social justice. Some argue that there should be rich and poor in society; justice is achieved by the “invisible hand of the market.” Others believe that there is no place for rich and poor in society; everyone should have approximately equal incomes. There is also a widespread point of view according to which the existence of rich and poor is recognized in society, at the same time the state, by redistributing part of the income from rich to poor, thereby promotes income equalization and creates political stability in the country. In this context, we note that social equality means the creation equal opportunities in education, health care, equality before the law, etc. At the same time, social equality does not mean equal distribution of income, but presupposes their differentiation depending on the abilities of people.

Income – the entire totality of cash and in-kind payments that the population of the country receives for the year.

Income in kind - some payments from social funds, products produced in personal subsidiary plots, and services provided by family members to the household household.

Cash income - all receipts of money in the form of wages, income from businesses. activities, pensions, scholarships, benefits, annuities, etc.

Forms of income and their sources:

· salary – labor

· % - capital

· rent – land and other natural resources

· let's undertake income - profit

· state transfer payments – state budget

Types of income:

· nominal income- cash income that does not depend on taxes or changes in the price level, received by the population during a certain period

· disposable income– income, the cat can be used for personal consumption or savings

· real income– the amount of T and U that can be purchased with disposable income over a certain period, adjusted for changes in the level of prices and tariffs, taxes, and mandatory payments.

The distribution of income in society can be:

equalizing

· market

· on accumulated income, property

· privileged

Main causes of income inequality:

· differences in the level of education received and profession. preparation

· differences in intellectual, physical, and aesthetic. abilities

Differences in willingness to take risks

inequality in property ownership

· monopolism

· shadow ek-ka

· luck, connections, misfortunes

· discrimination in payment

closeness to power

Income inequality indicators:

% of income OA curve – absolute growth curve

Curve L – Lorentz curve

10%% of the population

· Lorenz curve shows the real distribution of monetary income in an existing society

· Decile coefficient: the difference between the least wealthy 10% and the wealthiest 10% in the Russian Federation, according to official data, reaches 16.5 times, according to unofficial data. data by 45 times.

· Gini coefficient– income concentration index = ratio of the figure OA L to the area of the triangle: the greater the deviation of the curve L from OA, the greater the inequality. The higher the Gini coefficient, the greater the inequality. 0<Кдж<1. В РФ Кдж = 0,423

Social Policy (SP) – social-ec processes carried out by the state in the form of coordinated activities to ensure favorable living conditions for the population.

SP levels:

· national

· regional

· municipal

· branded

Forms of implementation of the joint venture:

· Social protection– a system of measures carried out by society as a whole and its units to ensure a decent material and social status of citizens (training and retraining of personnel for qualified labor activity, accessibility in the implementation of abilities in the process of labor and entrepreneurial activity, ensuring conditions for the growth of well-being, ensuring an optimal structure society (presence of a middle class))

· Social guarantees– a system of society’s obligations to its members to meet the necessary needs (creating conditions for the comprehensive development of a person and opportunities for its implementation in free labor)

JV goals:

· health

· presence of children

· presence of education

· Personal development through training

· employment and quality of labor resources

· economic situation of the individual

favorable environment

favorable social environment

· social security and justice

· participation in public life

The group of most important indicators of the standard of living and level of well-being includes indicators that reflect the level and dynamics of income of the population. And the indicator of real disposable income of the population is also considered as one of the key macroeconomic indicators. First of all, this is due to the fact that the income of the population (households), regardless of its form and source of receipt, is the main source of the formation of funds necessary to satisfy the current (current consumption) and deferred needs (savings) of people. Thus, the income of the population and its dynamics most directly affect the standard of living of the country’s citizens and the opportunities for human development.

Secondly, the level of income of the population and its dynamics are considered as one of the most important parameters that determine the dynamics of aggregate demand, and, consequently, the dynamics of economic growth in the country.

Inequality of personal income in a market economy is natural and inevitable. Moreover, the opportunity to have high incomes is considered as a significant stimulating factor that encourages people to get a good education, improve their skills, and take their work responsibilities more responsibly. Low incomes at the macro level may indicate ineffective economic and social policies, and at the corporate level - ineffective production and management, and a low level of social responsibility of the employer.

From the point of view of market ideology, all incomes, regardless of their level, are considered fair - however, under one condition: if they are obtained as a result of honest, fair competition, in compliance with ethical standards and principles of social responsibility. At the same time, it is obvious that excessive differentiation of incomes of the population can lead to undesirable social consequences: social uncertainty and instability, a decrease in the level of trust and degradation of social capital in society, social conflicts and growth costs of disorder

As already mentioned in previous sections, the growing differentiation of incomes of the population and, as a consequence, the deepening of social inequality are considered, on the one hand, as one of the trends in the transformation of the social structure of modern society, and on the other, as one of the most acute global social challenges and risks.

Important to remember

Regulation and income policy are considered as one of the most important social functions of the state and directions of state social policy.

are being formed secondary income, primarily transfers - gratuitous payments from the budget and (or) special funds not related to the ownership of factors of production (pensions, scholarships, child benefits, unemployment, etc.).

The distribution of national income between the owners of factors of production is called functional distribution income. Personal (vertical) income distribution occurs between individuals (households) regardless of the source of income.

By form of receipt It is customary to distinguish between monetary and non-monetary (in kind) income.

IN monetary form, economic entities receive factor income (wages, interest, rental payments, profit) and transfers (scholarships, pensions, various benefits). In the modern economy, people receive predominantly cash income. Revenues in in kind- These are products grown on a private farm, items independently made for personal consumption.

The amount of money received by people over a certain period (week, month, etc.) is their nominal income. Real income is the cost of a certain set of goods that can be purchased over the same period; its value depends on the size of nominal income and the price level.

By degree of legality differentiate legal(obtained legally) and illegal(shadow) income. The latter, in turn, can be divided into income from unaccounted business activities and income of criminal origin.

In accordance with life cycle a distinction is made between income received before starting work (benefits, scholarships), from participation in work (wages), received by temporarily unemployed citizens (unemployment benefits), and after completion of work (pension).

According to the ILO, since the 1980s. In most developed countries, there is a trend towards a reduction in the share of labor income in national income and an increase in the share of income on capital. According to experts, this trend undermines the pace and sustainability of future economic growth, since it limits the growth of household consumption; workers have a feeling of injustice in the income they receive, which can lead to undesirable socio-political consequences.

Volume and structure of cash incomes of the population of Russia. Data from the Russian State Statistics Committee on the structure and volume of income of the population in Russia are given in table. 6.1.

Table 6.1

Volume and structure of cash income of the population by source of income

Total cash income, billion rubles.	Including in %
Total cash income, billion rubles.	wages, including hidden wages	business income	social	property income

Source: Data from the Federal State Statistics Service. URL: http:// www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/ru/statistics/population/level/# (date accessed 08/10/2015).

As can be seen from the above data, the income structure of the population in our country is quite stable. The main type of income continues to be wages, which is generally consistent with the situation in other countries. Noteworthy is the relatively high share of social payments, which in 2013 amounted to more than 18%. However, to ensure social sustainability and a decent standard of living, it is important that the income structure is more diversified and that people’s well-being does not depend on a single source of income.

It was noted above that in Russia the level of income differentiation is excessive (according to 2013 data, the decile coefficient is 16.3, the Gini coefficient (index) is 0.419). The trend of deepening income inequality in the country has not yet been reversed.

Among the reasons (factors) for income differentiation, it is customary to distinguish between economic, geographic, demographic, social, and personal factors.

Economic factors - presence (absence) of property, size of controlled capital, type and scope of activity, form of ownership of the organization, position of a particular company in the market, its financial stability (instability).

Geographical factors - features of natural and climatic conditions (unfavorable living and working conditions require compensation payments).

Demographic factors - gender, age, ethnicity and other types of discrimination in the labor market.

Social factors - belonging to a particular social group. Social status and social connections largely determine a person’s choice of model for searching for a field of activity that will bring him income.

Personal factors - the level of development of human abilities, the possibilities of their development and use, individual psychological characteristics; level of education and qualifications, health status.

In general, the income of the population is formed as a result of the action primarily of economic factors of different levels: macro level(macroeconomic situation in the country), meso level (situation in the region or industry), macro level(health status, level of development of abilities, education and qualifications, place and form of employment). The amount of income received by households depends on the relationship between supply and demand in resource markets, the marginal productivity of resources, the influence of non-economic factors (for example, personal inclinations of people to work or idle, the quality of the social environment, etc.). Thus, the key factor determining the level of wages is labor productivity, which is directly related to the employee’s human capital - his knowledge and skills acquired in the process of general and vocational education and work. At the same time, educational attainment or labor productivity alone are not sufficient to explain variations in wages across countries or within countries.

A high degree of income differentiation gives rise to serious socio-economic problems: the disappearance of the middle class, followed by an inevitable change in the structure and level of demand; society bears social costs associated with poverty and misery as extreme forms of income differentiation; social tension and political instability are increasing and becoming a brake on economic development.

To correctly adjust existing income inequality within the framework of income policy, it is necessary to have information about the level of their differentiation (degree of inequality). Various indicators are used to measure income and the level of their differentiation.

Income differentiation coefficients(funds ratio, decile, quarterly and quintile coefficients) show how large the gap is in the incomes of the most and least well-off groups of the population, having the same share in its total population.

Currently, the value of the fund ratio in the Scandinavian countries is about 4, in Russia - about 16, in Singapore - more than 20; the world average is about 10 (this coefficient value is considered critical).

A graphical interpretation of the level of income differentiation was proposed by M. Lorenz. shows the cumulative distribution of population and corresponding income. Data for constructing the Lorenz curve for Russia are given in table. 6.2.

Table 6.2

Distribution of total monetary income of the population

Cash	Including for 20% population groups, %
Cash	first (lowest income)	fourth	fifth (with the highest income)

Source". Rosstat data. URL: http://v

www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_

main/rosstat/ru/statistics/population/lcvcl/ (access date 09/10/2015).

To construct the Lorenz curve (Figure 6.1), 20% shares of the population and monetary income are plotted along the axes and graphs are drawn for hypothetical cases: absolutely uniform (UA) and absolutely uneven (BOTH) income distribution. Graphs illustrating actual income distributions will appear in between. Based on the position of the graph in the coordinate system, one can make reliable assumptions about the degree of inequality: the closer the graph is to the OA curve, the more uniform the distribution of income it corresponds to. Figure 6.1 also shows curves showing the actual distribution of income of the Russian population in 1970 and 2013. The deviation of the Lorenz curve from the line of absolute equality is measured through the ratio of the area of the segment formed by the Lorenz curve and the line OA to the area of the triangle formed by the lines of absolute equality and inequality. This indicator is called the Gini coefficient (index), or the coefficient of wealth concentration.

Rice. 6.1.

Coefficient (index) Jeanie(G) characterizes the differentiation of monetary incomes of the population in the form of the degree of deviation of the actual distribution of income from their absolutely equal distribution among the inhabitants of the country. The coefficient values range from 0 (absolute equality) to 1 (absolute inequality). An example of the dynamics of the Gini coefficient in countries around the world is shown in Fig. 6.2. Its typical value for developed countries is from 0.2 (in the Scandinavian countries) to 0.35 (in the USA), for developing countries it is OD-OD and coincides with the Russian indicator.

Rice. 6.2.

Russia;.....China;.........India;-Brazil

Source-. World Bank Data, 2012.

In a hypothetical unregulated market economy (in the absence of a state smoothing out differences in income), the distribution of income would be extremely uneven, which is unacceptable for a modern civilized society. To maintain stability, the state is forced to take on the functions of organizing a decent life for people, which in the historical past were performed by the family or community and which, by definition, cannot be performed by the market. In theory and practice, this redistribution of social responsibility took the form of welfare state concepts (welfare state). This concept was formed in the 1930-1940s. based on the ideas of famous economists D. Keynes, A. Pigou and sociologists A. Müller-Armack, G. Esping-Andersen. The purpose of its implementation in practice is to create conditions for achieving the highest possible standard of living in a given society. Socially oriented activities of the state are considered as a means of achieving the goal, which involves regulating the labor and income markets, combating unemployment, selective support for industries, and the implementation of social programs (development of education, healthcare, various social payments to the population, etc.).

One of the most important areas of activity of a modern state is the regulation of income, carried out through the implementation of state income policy. Income policy is an integral element of the state's social policy.

It should be noted that income policy can be based on the principle of “non-interference” of the state in the process of their regulation. At the same time, the practice of economically developed countries of the world indicates that the state regulates income using certain methods and tools. As main goal Income policy considers adjusting the consequences of the functioning of the market economic mechanism, reducing the level of income differentiation, material and social inequality, and implementing measures aimed at increasing incomes and equalizing them.

Important to remember

Income policy is one of the most important areas of state social policy; a system of measures aimed at increasing incomes and their equalization, reducing the level of differentiation of incomes of the population.

TO main directions income policies should include:

- reducing excess inequality in wages and other types of income of the population;
- reduction in the number of low-skilled and low-paid categories of workers; promoting the creation of jobs requiring high qualifications;
- counteracting inflationary depreciation of income and savings of the population; indexation of cash income and savings;
- maintaining a correlation between wages and labor productivity;
- determination and maintenance of the minimum acceptable parameters of life of the population (establishing a minimum wage, pensions and social benefits);
- regulation of wages for public sector employees, etc.

The state, by adjusting the process of income distribution, redistributing the income of the population, creates conditions for improving the level and quality of life, and helps to ease social tension. Subjects State income policies are governed by authorities at various levels. Object - income population (primarily cash), received from various sources, as well as factors, influencing the level of income of the population and their dynamics. The degree of state intervention in the distribution and redistribution of income is determined by the level of differentiation of income of the population, the perception of social inequality by society, the ideas of social justice accepted in a given society, the characteristics and priorities of the state’s social policy.

The process of income regulation involves the use of a wide range of methods and tools: administrative, legal, economic (direct and indirect).

Methods administrative regulation- various methods of licensing, quotas, rationing of activities, as well as methods of regulating prices, income, and exchange rates. Their distinctive features are the establishment of strict regulations for an economic entity, strict regulation of its actions through various kinds of regulations, decrees and decisions.

An example of administrative methods of regulating income is freezing wages or establishing minimum and maximum limits for the reduction/growth of income. Such measures, as a rule, are applied by the state in relation to civil servants, employees of budgetary organizations and institutions, and state-owned companies (for example, limiting the size of bonuses for goyim managers).

Legal regulation income is carried out through legal norms enshrined in law, and involves the development of a regulatory framework for state income policy, adherence to international norms and standards in the field of their regulation.

International standards and requirements are enshrined in such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Convention No. 117 “Fundamental Objectives and Standards of Social Policy”, ILO Convention No. 131 and ILO Recommendation No. 135 “On the Establishment of Minimum Wages with Special Consideration to Developing Countries”, ILO Convention No. 95 “On the Protection of Wages”, etc.

According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 15, item 4), generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation are an integral part of its legal system, and international treaties signed and ratified by Russia take precedence over domestic legislative acts.

As an example of Russian laws that are significant in the context of the problem under consideration, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, federal laws № 134-FZ of September 24, 1997 “On the subsistence minimum in the Russian Federation” (as amended on December 3, 2012), No. 22-FZ of June 19, 2000 “On the minimum wage”, No. 166-FZ of January 15 2001 “On state pension provision in the Russian Federation” (ed. 07/21/2014).

Economic regulation involves the use of methods of direct and indirect economic regulation.

Methods direct economic regulation forces a business entity to make decisions based not on its own economic choice, but on the basis of state regulations. The main instruments are government orders, targeted financing (budgetary, in the form of subsidies, grants), national programs and projects, public investments. Among the methods of direct economic regulation, one should name the regulation of wages (determining the types, size and calculation mechanism) of public sector workers; social government transfers; social guarantees (definition of the living wage, minimum wage).

Methods indirect economic regulation does not imply direct government intervention in the decision-making process of business entities; they are aimed at creating conditions under which the independent economic choice of a business entity would correspond to the goals of the state’s economic policy. The most important tool for indirect economic regulation of population income is state tax policy. Through tax policy, it is possible to redistribute income, achieve a reduction in inequality, stimulate an increase in the social responsibility of companies in terms of their compliance with established standards in the field of remuneration, and encourage the provision of jobs for people with disabilities.

Income redistribution is rightly considered one of the most important functions of taxes. The introduction of a progressive taxation system in the country (increasing the effective tax rate with an increase in the tax base) makes it possible to reduce the degree of income inequality. Thus, in Sweden the maximum income tax rate is almost 60%, and in Russia - 13% (it is interesting to compare these data with the value of the Gini coefficient - see Fig. 6.7).

Another income regulation tool that has proven its effectiveness is tax benefits, provided to socially vulnerable categories of the population and allowing to reduce the tax burden on their income. The main category of recipients of social benefits are pensioners; benefits are also addressed to disabled people, labor veterans, large families, and combat veterans; the poor and other socially vulnerable categories of citizens. Preferential categories of citizens may be provided with income tax deductions; property or land taxes may be charged at preferential rates.

Along with the above control methods, widely used conciliation methods: coordination of actions of the government, entrepreneurs and employees on issues of wages and social transfers within the framework of social partnership.

Implementing an effective income policy can be complicated by a number of factors, including the following.

1. Resource capabilities of the state. They are determined by government (budgetary and extra-budgetary) expenditures, state budget policy, and the balance of the country’s budget. State social expenditures, including those aimed at increasing wages, income indexation, and social transfers, must correspond to its financial capabilities. Excessive (compared to possibilities) social expenditures can cause a budget deficit and cause inflation and a decrease in real incomes of the population.
2. Reduced incentives for economic activity. Redistribution of income through a progressive tax system can lead to a decrease in business activity in the country, since it reduces the investment opportunities of companies and, accordingly, incentives to expand economic activity. In addition, there is likely to be an effect known as the "Oukep Bucket": a dollar taken from the rich is transferred to the poor in a "leaky bucket", with the result that only a portion of the redistributed income reaches the poor, and redistribution in the name of equality is detrimental to economic efficiency.
3. Negative impact on the labor market. Social benefits can distort the labor market. Unemployment benefits that are too high encourage recipients to stop looking for work. The consequence will be a reduction in tax revenues to the budget, degradation of accumulated human capital, disruption of work motivation, increased consumption to the detriment of savings with obvious macroeconomic consequences.
4. The danger of bureaucratization. Redistribution of income presupposes the functioning of certain bureaucratic structures with their own interests, which do not always coincide with the interests of the state, the desire for self-reproduction and economic power.

The above factors, to one degree or another, complicate the implementation of an effective income policy in any country in the world. At the same time, its absence is dangerous in its consequences (poverty growth factor, material and social inequality of citizens, social tension, the formation of social contradictions and risks.

Report "Global wages in 2012-2013". Wages and fair growth / GTPDT and ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. M.: ILO, 2013. S. V-VI. URL: http://www.trudcontrol.ru/files/editor/files/Global_wages_ru.pdf (accessed September 10, 2015).
Arthur Okun (1928-1980) - American economist, advisor to the President of the United States. Kennedy.

Population income and socio-economic policy of the state. Population income and social policy in the Russian Federation

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