3 8. Table 1 gives a breakdown of the types of spending by firms on "social" functions or nonmonetary remuneration in 1995. Expenditures on social development made up 75 percent of the total, with this category of spending dominated in turn by expenditures on maintenance of housing, infrastructure and social facilities, which accounted for 53 percent of all nonmonetary remuneration of employees. Unfortunately, no breakdown of expenditures on construction by type of facility is available, but housing makes up the largest category of expenditures on maintenance of facilities, accounting for 14 percent of total nonmonetary remuneration. It is also of interest that maintenance of infrastructure, such as repair of heating plants, made up a further 12 percent of total "social" spending by enterprises.

9. Finally, enterprise spending on "social benefits," or subsidies in kind which do not include construction, maintenance or financing of special events, made up _Table_ **_1:_** _Composition of_ **_Enterprise_** _"Social"_ **_Expenditures,_** _1995_

||_Billions_<br>_Belarusian_<br>_Rubels_|_Percent_|
|---|---|---|
|Expenditures on Social Development<br>|2,649,653<br>|75<br>|
|Construction of Facilities|609,512|17|
|Maintenance of Facilities|1,864,250|53|
|Health|<br>267,135|8|
|Social Insurance<br>|133,177<br>|4<br>|
|Sports|65,134|2|
|Education|294840|8|
|<br>Culture|,<br>88,289|2|
|Housing and Infrastructure|917,359|26|
|Housing|484,891|14|
|I|||
|Special Events|175,891|5|
|<br>Health and Sports|<br>100,442|3|
|Education and Culture|39,606|1<br>|
|||25|
|Total Expenditures on Social|3,540,529|100|
|Development and Social Benefits|||

' Subsidies in kind to employee **s** uch as subsidized food, vouchers for transport, etc. _Source:_ Ministry of Statistics, Republic of Belarus 25 percent of all "social" expenditures by enterprises. These "social benefits" included subsidies for such things as commuting and food. The transportation subsidies were and are important in tight housing markets. The importance of food subsidies is seen in the fact that food expenditures in 1995 accounted for 62 percent of consumer budgets in Belarus-ten times as much as the next largest category of consumer expenditure, which was clothing.

10. Enterprise provision of many of these social benefits in former Soviet Union countries has been observed to be superior in aggregate to that available to other members of the public.<sup>7</sup> To an outside observer, differences in provision of nonmonetary benefits are most evident by size of enterprise, however. The dental benefits provided by a large enterprise such as Belarus Railways greatly exceed both in quality and availability those extended to the ordinary member of the public through state clinics.

11. Aggregate statistics support this observation that enterprise spending on fringe benefits is systematically correlated with size of firm. As can be seen in Table 2, the quartile comprised of the largest

> 7 "Enterprise kindergartens were considered to be superior in quality to municipal facilities, and these differentials appear to have persisted: 1994 data for Kazakhstan show per child expenditures in enterprise kindergartens to be twice that in those run by the Ministry of Education." Klugman et al., "Enterprise Divestiture of Kindergartens and Childcare Arrangements in Central Asia," pp. 3-4. In another 1995 study for the Bank by ADB Associates, it was estimated that adoption of municipal standards would reduce total kindergarten costs in the Kyrgyz Republic by 20%. Cited in Freinkman and Starodubrovskaya, "Restructuring ofEnterprise Social Assets in Russia," p.<sup>24</sup> .