Measuring and Analyzing Income and Wealth in CIS Countries and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Intensive discussions on a wide range of topics took place at the conference which was focused on measuring income and wealth in CIS countries and Eastern Europe, organized by IARIW and Higher School of Economics in Moscow in September 2019. The article deals with some topics of the conference.As the macroeconomic analysis shows, the impact of globalization on the distribution of global income is one of the factors changing the global centers of power. Research on multifactor productivity, the slowdown of which is observed according to some estimates during two recent decades, becomes more important. The development of tools using the purchasing power parities provides additional capacity in assessing the stratification of economies and helps expand macroeconomic estimates and analysis’ base.Along with the macroeconomic topics, the article deals with the key points of discussion on measuring income. One of the focus areas today is assessing poverty based on the multidimensional approach which allows enhancing substantively the poverty analysis. While considering the income stratification, the attention in the article is also paid to the definition of the middle class basing on the expenditures’ pattern, in addition to a standard definition based on the income level.