The Population’s Adaptation to the New Economic Reality

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the populations adaptation behavior appeared in the period of 2015-2017. The author studies the populations ideas about economic growth perspectives; the level of resources development; current adaptation strategies. The informational base of the study is monitoring research Subjective well-being, conducted annually by INSAP Ranepa in the form of 8 waves of representative surveys with a sample of 1,640 respondents. It is shown that the population perceives the current economic situation without alarmism, but does not see the prospects for its improvement. In such a situation adaptation means getting used to new conditions by reducing consumption standards for the majority of people. Only one fifth of the population has a high resource potential, allowing to create a variety of adaptation strategies, while twice higher number of those who is characterized by the low resource potential. The main adaptation strategy for the group with low resource potential has become the use of a private subsidiary farm. Active forms of adaptation dealt with the implementation of various resources characterize the behavior of the third of the population.