Premium
Exploring housing subsidies to households in Russia
Author(s) -
Hamilton Ellen,
Banerjee Sudeshna Ghosh,
Lomaia Maka
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1393
Subject(s) - subsidy , tariff , payment , economics , public economics , government (linguistics) , business , economic policy , labour economics , economic growth , international economics , finance , market economy , linguistics , philosophy
Since the early 1990s, the Russian government has undertaken a series of reforms intended to change the system from one where housing and communal services (HCSs) were nearly free to one where residents paid the costs of their housing while protecting vulnerable families. Although households payments have increased, subsidies for HCSs remain substantial (about 4 per cent of GDP) and are exceeded only by public spending for pensions. This paper uses newly available data to analyse recipients of the two major housing subsidy programs. We find that neither l'goti (which are not targeted) nor allowances (which are supposed to be targeted) have provided much protection for poorer households from tariff increases. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.