What Can Be Learned from Introducing Settlement Typology into Urban Poverty Analysis: The Case of the Tomsk Region, Russia

Abstract

This study uses household survey data from the Tomsk oblast (region) to analyse how and why household welfare differs among the distinct urban settlement types. Urban settlements patterns in the Soviet Union were unusual because they were determined by government priorities not market forces. As a result, transition brought widespread change in urban fortunes to different types of urban settlement. In Tomsk oblast, smaller cities dependent on timber and other non-oil-related economic activities were hardest hit. Poorly located and increasingly economically disadvantaged, these cities have become geographical poverty traps for their residents. Households living in the oblast capital with its diverse economy and good geographical linkages to other places have fared better, while households living in smaller cities dependent on oil production have done best of all.