The institutional and economic context of the formation of Non-financial Wealth in Russian Households: From privatization to acquisition

mechanism of household mass involvement in the 'ownership' of non-financial wealth. Increasing economic prosperity at the beginning of 2000s paved the way for new institutional mechanisms, such as the development of consumer (and then mortgage) lending, the launch of government programs for the development of housing construction, the automotive industry. These opened up relatively broad opportunities (and risks) to Russians to increase non-financial wealth through the acquisition of property. During 1991-2014, the proportion of households owning housing assets and vehicles increased steadily, however, the proportion of land owners and owners of production assets fluctuated. In the same period the share of households not owning any non-financial assets decreased significantly. Yet there is an apparent tendency towards polarization: the fractions of households that witnessed the highest growth were the ones with only a single asset in ownership and the ones owning more than three assets.