The data contains detailed information on expenditures and transfers (based on diaries), and data are adjusted in a complicated and non-transparent manner to account for sampling and non-response biases. The only source of data on aggregate incomes of Russian households is the balance of monetary incomes (and expenditures) of Russian households, Rosstat compiles this dataset on the basis of all available sources of information (including wage surveys) for both national and regional levels. These two sources are then “combined” to estimate an income distribution on the basis of the HBS data assuming that average household income is equal to that estimated on the basis of the balance of monetary incomes.