High levels of economic inequality may lead to lower economic growth and can have negative social and political impacts …. Recent empirical research shows that income and wealth inequalities in Eastern Europe since the fall of socialism increased … significantly more than previously suggested. Currently, the average Gini index (a common measure) of inequality in Eastern Europe …

The evolution of income distribution over two centuries is an attractive topic because it allows one to test the … inverse U-curve hypothesis using long series instead of cross-section data. In Section 1 the distribution trends in countries … and Germany, and in France. The inverse U-curve hypothesis is verified in four of them. Section 2 presents in a consistent …