“Economic Analysis of Poverty in Transitional Russia: A Microeconometric Approach” (Tokyo University Press. 2011)

Yuka Takeda (Economic Analysis of Poverty in Transitional Russia: A Microeconometric Approach)

I am honored to receive the 28th Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the staff of the foundation, the steering committee, and all those who encouraged and supported me.
In the last century, Russia underwent an unprecedented transition from a planned economy to a market economy. My book, Economic Analysis of Poverty in Transitional Russia: A Microeconometric Approach, tries to capture the poverty that occurred in Russia in the process of this transition, by using a microeconometric analysis. I focus on three new aspects: poverty dynamics at the household level, comparison of poverty in the urban and rural areas, and pro-poor growth. During the Soviet period, the study of poverty was hampered by denial of the existence of poverty and by the severe lack of data. However, in the course of the transition, data on poverty and the living standards of the population were gathered and disclosed. Moreover, academic institutions started to regularly conduct nationally representative household surveys and open access to micro data. This availability of data significantly improved the conditions for studying poverty in transitional Russia.
However, as indicated by Russian researchers, few studies have used scientific methods to study poverty, although such studies are useful for making policies and recommendations. Sharing this understanding, I employed a microeconometric approach in my book. I also believed that by adopting a microeconometric approach, which is commonly used in the social sciences, I could extend the frontiers of research on Russian poverty from country-specific studies to comparative studies and frontier sciences.
I don’t know whether I was able to successfully meet this challenge, but this prize has encouraged me to continue conducting new empirical research, thus bridging Russian study with frontier sciences.

Profile
Yuka Takeda was born in Tokyo. She obtained her B.A. (1996), M.A. (1999), and Ph.D. (2007) in economics from the University of Tokyo. She has been a Research Associate (2004-2007) and a Research Fellow (2007-2008) at the Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University (2008-2010). Since 2010, she has been serving as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. In 2001-2003, she held a position as a Research Fellow at the Centre of Labour Market Studies, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Russia. In 2011, she also served as a Consultant for the Kazakhstan project of ILO. Her main research interests are empirical studies on poverty, inequality, and labor market in Russia.