Satisfaction with Life and Service Delivery in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Salman Zaidi

Description

The past two decades in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have been times of tremendous change, with countries undergoing rapid transformation from centrally-planned to market-oriented economies. While poverty increased during the initial years of transition, primarily on account of the sharp economic contraction, the resurgence of economic growth in the region since 1998 has resulted in a rebound in household incomes and living standards. Data from the 2006 Life in Transition Survey (LiTS)-a joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank-provides a unique opportunity to investigate the extent to which citizens of ECA countries are satisfied with their lives and with the performances of their governments, and to study key factors influencing their outlook in a systematic way across all countries of the region.
The main objective of the LiTS was to assess the impact of transition on people, covering four main themes. First, it collected personal information on aspects of material well-being, including household expenditures, possession of consumer goods such as a car or mobile phone, and access to local public services and utilities. Second, the survey included measures of satisfaction and attitudes towards economic and political reforms as well as public service delivery. Third, the LiTS captured individual 'histories'-key events and episodes that may have influenced their attitudes towards reforms, and information on family background, employment, and coping strategies. Finally, the survey also attempted to capture the extent to which crime and corruption are affecting peoples' lives, and the extent to which individuals' trust in other people and in state institutions has changed over time.

Informations

• Publié par: world-bank-publications
• Publié le: 19 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 32
• EAN13: 9780821379011
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

W ORLD BANK W ORKING P APER NO . 162
Satisfaction with Life and Service
Delivery in Eastern Europe and the
Former Soviet Union
Some Insights from the 2006 Life in Transition
Survey
Salman Zaidi
Asad Alam
Pradeep Mitra
Ramya Sundaram
THE WORLD BANK11524-00_FM.qxd 1/19/09 11:41 AM Page i
WORLD BANK WORKING P APER NO . 162
Satisfaction with Life and Service
Delivery in Eastern Europe and
the Former Soviet Union
Some Insights from the 2006 Life
in Transition Survey
Salman Zaidi
Asad Alam
Pradeep Mitra
Ramya Sundaram
THE WORLD BANK
Washington, D.C.11524-00_FM.qxd 1/19/09 11:41 AM Page ii
Copyright © 2009
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A.
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Printing: February 2009
printed on recycled paper
1234512111009
World Bank Working Papers are published to communicate the results of the Bank’s work to
the development community with the least possible delay. The manuscript of this paper therefore
has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formally-edited texts.
Some sources cited in this paper may be informal documents that are not readily available.
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and
do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/
The World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of The
World Bank or the governments they represent.
The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The
boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do
not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank of the legal status of any territory or
the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all
of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work
and will normally grant permission promptly to reproduce portions of the work.
For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with
complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers,
MA 01923, USA, Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone], www.copyright.com.
All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to
the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA,
Fax: [phone], email: [e-mail].
ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7900-4
eISBN: 978-0-8213-7901-1
ISSN: 1726-5878 DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-7900-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Satisfaction with life and service delivery in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union : some
insights from the 2006 life in transition survey / Salman Zaidi . . . [et al.].
p. ; cm.—(World Bank working paper, ISSN 1726-5878 ; no. 162)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8213-7900-4
1. Health surveys—Europe, Eastern. 2. Health surveys—Asia, Central. I. Zaidi, Salman, 1967-II.
World Bank. III. Series: World Bank working paper ; no. 162.
[DNLM: 1. Consumer Satisfaction—Europe, Eastern. 2. Health Services—Europe, Eastern.
3. Data Collection—Europe, Eastern. 4. Quality of Life—Europe, Eastern. 5. Socioeconomic
Factors—Europe, Eastern. W 85 S253 2009]
RA407.5.E85S28 2009
362.1094—dc22
200805279711524-00_FM.qxd 1/19/09 11:41 AM Page iii
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
1. Key Factors Affecting Satisfaction with Life in Eastern Europe
and the Former Soviet Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Satisfaction with Life as a Welfare Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Key Factors Influencing SWL: Multivariate Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Comparisons over Time and Across Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Concluding Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Annex: Tables and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2. Employment, Sources of Income, and the Poor in Eastern Europe
and the Former Soviet Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Choosing Between Alternate Survey-Based Welfare Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
How Good is the LiTS Welfare Metric? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Poverty Profile for ECA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Employment, Sources of Income, and Welfare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Concluding Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Annex: Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3. Satisfaction with Publicly-provided Health Services in Eastern Europe
and the Former Soviet Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Evolution of Publicly-provided Health Services in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Utilization Rates, Satisfaction, and Prevalence of Informal Payments. . . . . . . . . . . 71
Estimation Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Key Findings and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Health Sector Reform in the Caucuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Concluding Observations88
Annex: Tables and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
LIST OF TABLES
1.1. Average SWL Score by Self-perceived Economic Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2. Average SWL Score by Present and Past Self-assessed Economic Status . . . . . . . 7
iii11524-00_FM.qxd 1/19/09 11:41 AM Page iv
iv Contents
1.3. Average SWL Score by Present and Past Level of Social Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4. Simulated Probabilities Derived from Ordered Probit Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5. Ordered Probit Results: SWL by Country Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.6. Change over Time in Average SWL Rates by Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.7. Comparing GDP and SWL Changes in Recent Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
A1.1. Satisfaction with Life Question by Country. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A1.2. Perceptions Regarding Changes over Time in Economic Situation
by Country. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A1.3. Satisfaction with Changes over Time in Living Conditions by Country. . . . . . 21
A1.4. Average SWL Score: Colleagues in 1989 Rather than School Mates as Peers . . 22
A1.5. Tendency to Feel I’ve Done Worse During Transition Than Others,
by Level of Income Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A1.6. Fall in Social Capital? Decline in Reported Level of Trust in Other People . . . 24
2.1. Comparing Various Alternate Welfare Measures in the LiTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2. Subjective Assessment of Welfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3. Ownership of Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4. Correlation Matrices: Decile Rankings Based on Various LiTS
Welfare Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.5. Asset Ownership Rates by Welfare Level using Alternate Ranking Criteria . . . 37
2.6. 2006 LiTS PCE Compared to Other Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.7. Overall Regional Poverty Rates from the 2006 LiTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.8. Overall Regional Poverty Rates from the 2006 LiTS44
2.9. Distribution of the Poor by Employment Status of the Respondent. . . . . . . . . 45
2.10. Respondents Having Worked in Past 12 Months, by Age, Gender,
and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .