Differences in the evolution of income distribution in Poland and Russia in the post-socialist era are striking: for example, in Poland, the gini coefficient on earnings went from 0.28 to 0.33 between 1988 and 1998 while in Russia it went from 0.27 to 0.47 (UNICEF, 2001). We argue that these...

Differences in the evolution of income distribution in Poland and Russia in the postsocialist era are striking: for example, in Poland, the gini coefficient on earnings went from 0.22 to 0.30 between 1990 and 1997 while in Russia it went from 0.27 to 0.48 (UNICEF, 2001). We argue that these...

In pursuit of its transition from a command to a market economy, post-Soviet Russia has witnessed enormous regional differences in economic growth rates. Moreover, the economic reforms implemented under this transition, while initiated at the federal level, have also differed markedly across...