The economies in transition are experiencing unique changes in the distribution of assets. The growth in the share of private ownership is occurring through the privatization of state-owned assets and through the birth of private firms. The changes in the property rights regime are exceptionally...

This paper's goal is to increase the understanding of the inequality trends during the transitional period in China. From 1978 to 1995, China has been undergoing 18 years far-reaching economic system reform and opening to the outside world nationwide. During the transitional periods, the average...

This paper reviews income distribution in developing countries in recent decades. On average, before-tax income distribution is less unequal in developing countries than it is in industrial countries. However, unlike industrial countries, developing countries in general have not been able to use...

The transition to a market economy in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union has been associated with greater inequality and social stratification. This paper prepared within the UNU/WIDER project on "Income Distribution and Social Structure during the Transition' analyses trends in social...

Much of the vast literature on changes in income distribution in advanced countries during the last two decades attributes these either to globalization, or to skill-biased technology, or to a combination of the two. A transatlantic concensus has emerged to suggest that thes two factors have led...

This paper challenges this view. It argues that while income inequality declined in several nations between the 1950s and 1970s, this trend has been reversed during the last twenty years in two-thirds of the countries with adequate data. This conclusion is based on an econometric analysis of...

In the current debate on the relationship between inequality in income distribution and growth one of the possible link works through the access to education. After reviewing this debate, a formal model shows how the imperfection of financial markets makes educational choices dependent on the...