7.2.3 Analyzing Food Security, Poverty and Public Health
Andrei Sushentsov
Project Leader
Project period
2020-2022
Context of Research Project within a Subject of Human Capital
In the current situation related to the spread of the COVID-19 in Russia and in the world, analyzing the adaptation of human capital to a sudden and large-scale economic shutdown is of particular relevance. Relevant experience can be found in the relatively recent history of Russia associated with the transformational crisis of the 1990s.
The research project Analyzing Food Security, Poverty and Public Health is aimed at assessing the long-term effects of the economic crisis of the 1990s on the health of the population – one of the important characteristics of human capital. The obtained estimates of the population's adaptation to economic crises may be of interest in the event of a possible recurrence of deep economic downturns (for example, as a result of a prolonged pandemic, a steady drop in oil prices, etc.). In addition, the analysis of such extreme experience will help to assess the limits of the sensitivity of human capital in Russia to large-scale macroeconomic and institutional shocks
Project Aim
Assess the long-term effects of the economic crisis (1990s) on the health of the population and the possibilities of mitigating the consequences of such crises through household access to non-market production of consumer goods.
Project Objectives
- Assess the long-term effects of post-Soviet disintegration in Russia and the increase in population poverty following the economic crisis in terms of health indicators
- Test the hypothesis that through the growth of participation in the informal sector of the economy, in particular, the use of personal infields for the purpose of replacing sharply increased food prices, the negative impact of poverty on the health of the population in the early and mid-1990s was mitigated or even fully compensated
- Identify the limits of the sensitivity of human capital in Russia to large-scale macroeconomic and institutional shocks
Key Findings
2020
A preliminary design has been developed to analyze the impact of the presence/absence of infields (informal employment) on differences between households in terms of poverty, health, involvement in the formal labor market and propensity to migrate to other regions. Baseline regressions have been evaluated, as well as placebo and robust specification tests have been performed.
2021
The models of the influence of the presence/absence of household plots (informal employment) on the differences between households in terms of poverty, health, involvement in the formal labor market and propensity to migrate to other regions have been evaluated using such health indicators for adults as growth and self-determined health assessment.
Conferences
International Research Seminar (Workshop) 1st Moscow International Workshop Applied Research in Labor Economics and Human Capital (RU) (MGIMO, November 12-13, 2021)
XXIII Yasins (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development (Moscow, Russia, April 5-22, 2022): special round table Social Norms, Economic Inequality and Adaptation of the Population to Large-Scale Economic Crises (04/06/2022)