Household Welfare and Income Shocks

The work investigates the impact of changes in income on household welfare in Russia during 1994 to 1998. Part I introduces the main estimation techniques, presents the data, and describes the origins of arrears crisis of wages, pensions and social benefits in Russia. Part II contains the empirical analysis. Chapter 5 simulates the effect of government cash transfers on poverty with Instrumental Variables estimation, taking into account consumption smoothing of households. Chapter 6 explores the welfare effects of non-payments of pensions in 1996 using a Difference-In-Differences model. Chapter 7 analyses the impact of wage arrears on the elderly who were either working themselves or living together with workers using matching techniques. Chapter 8 studies the link between wage arrears and child health, also using matching techniques. The final chapter summarizes the main findings and draws policy conclusions.

Autorentext

Kaspar Richter, World Bank economist, has worked for over ten years on macroeconomics, public finance and regional development in Europe and Asia. He holds a Phd in economics and a masters in mathematical economics from the London School of Economics, and diploma in economics and political science from the Freie Universität Berlin.