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...

As seen from the year 2001, economic policy in developing and post-socialist economies during the preceding 10-15 years had one dominating theme - external "liberalization" or the drastic lowering or removal of long-standing barriers to almost all international transactions in markets for goods...

We introduce two separate datasets.the Global Consumption Dataset and the Global Income Dataset.containing an unprecedented portrait of consumption and income of persons over time, within and across countries, around the world. The benchmark version of the dataset presents estimates in...

This paper reviews Finland.s growth strategy in the postwar decades. Finland was able to initiate an impressive mobilization of resources during this period, reflected mostly in a high rate of capital accumulation for manufacturing industries. This was achieved by an unorthodox combination of...

This paper reviews Finnish economic history during the 'long' twentieth century with a special emphasis on policies for equity and growth. We argue that Finland developed from a poor, vulnerable, and conflict-prone country to a modern economy in part through policies geared at both growth and...

The United Nations Millennium Declaration commits to halving extreme poverty between 2000 and 2015. The South African government has set a goal of halving poverty by 2014, although the meaning of this goal has not yet been defined. This article specifies government.s stated target of halving...