The relationship between human development and the cost of addictive goods in the regions of Russia

Abstract

The study is aimed to establish the relationship between the indicator of the share of expenditures on alcoholic beverages in household final consumption expenditures and the value of the human development index. The object of research is the regions of the Russian Federation. The research is based on methods of the mathematical and statistical analysis of data of UNDP and Rosstat. Alcohol expenditures are decreasing in almost all regions against the background of the growth of the human development index. At the same time, half of the regions with a relatively low human development index have higher spending on alcoholic beverages and vice versa. In the Stavropol Territory and the Ivanovo Region, spending on alcoholic beverages is growing and there is a direct link with the human development index. The leaders in spending on alcoholic beverages are the Rostov Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Kirov Region, the Murmansk Region, Karelia, the Kostroma Region, the Kaluga Region, the Komi Republic, the Khabarovsk Territory, and the Pskov Region. In these regions, except for Komi, against the background of high spending on alcoholic beverages, a relatively low human development index. In St. Petersburg with a high index of development, high expenditures on alcoholic beverages, in Moscow and the Republic of Tatarstan, also with a high human development index, expenditures on alcoholic beverages are average. North Ossetia, Dagestan, the Republic of Ingushetia, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the Chechen Republic have the lowest expenditures on alcoholic beverages among all constituent entities of Russia, but also relatively low human development index indicators. The regions with low expenditures on alcoholic beverages are also the Tambov Region, Novgorod Region, Ryazan Region, Republic of Adygea, Buryatia, Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of Altai, Magadan Region, Irkutsk Region, Ulyanovsk Region.