Social Consequences of Economic Reforms: Subjective Perception vs Statistical Data

Abstract

The attitude of the Russian population to the economic reforms that began in this country in January 1992 remains ambiguous. While liberals emphasize that the government of the “young reformers” has opened the way to economic freedom, their opponents believe that the social and financial price paid by the population for the transition to the market was too high. The discussions are mainly conducted in the political terms, but rarely in the fields of economic and social analysis. Based on official statistical data, the article attempts to objectively assess to what extent the situation of the early 1990s was inevitable, and to what extent it was the result of economic reforms. The author analyzes the most acute problems from a social point of view, namely the depreciation of pre-reform saving deposits of the population and the deterioration of demographic indicators. The impact of reforms on the labor market is a separate problem that deserves special consideration. Recognizing the inevitability of market reforms, the author considers options for mitigating the severity of the social situation that have not been implemented for various reasons and some of the compensating tools that were adopted by the Russian Government at the initial stage of reforms.