Efficiency of the poverty reduction programs: decomposition of the dynamics and structure of Russian poverty

We investigate the dynamics and the structure of the Russian poverty for the period of 1994 – 2005 in the context of the government socio-economic policy of poverty reduction. In the study we employ decompositions of relative levels of poverty on growth and redistribution components of average incomes. The trends in the depth and severity of poverty and income deficit for various so-cio-demographic groups are presented. We present decomposition of poverty according to the sources of household income at different periods of time in order to assess the contribution of vari-ous components of the household income on poverty. Our results include decomposition of sources of income on the Gini coefficient within poor and rich subgroups and inequality between these groups.