The 'motivation' for this study is the change of the occupational structure and the subsequent increase in employment opportunities especially for white-collar professionals, whose situation was comparatively weak under socialist rule. In this paper, it is assumed that the situation of...

The latest enlargement of the European Union has had the effect that people showing considerable differences in their standard of living have been united into a common social unit. The aim of this paper is to gain some insight about the extent to which social inequality in the EU has increased...

This paper examines household level economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe before and during the transformations of their economies. The authors test the assumptions that the economic transitions would increase poverty and income inequality within the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic,...

This paper compares income inequality in former socialist countries with those in a market society, focusing on the ways in which social welfare systems operate in different states. Evidence of inequality and poverty is considered for three countries: Russia; Poland; and Finland. These issues in...

The aim of this study is to clarify, whether and where the widespread opinion that systemic change from socialism to capitalism went along with dramatically rising inequality is true and how income distribution does affect the overall growth performance of transition countries. The countries...

This paper seeks to document and analyse changes in the distribution of wages and employment in the transition countries since the collapse of communism. Most countries experienced an increase in wage inequality during the initial shock of the transition. Proximate causes of this increase seem...

We document changes in the structure of earnings during the economic transition in Poland. We find that inequality in labor earnings increased substantially from 1988 to 1996. A common view is that the reallocation of workers from a public sector with a compressed wage distribution, to a private...

This paper analyzes the evolution of inequality in Poland during the economic transition that began in 1989-90. Using micro data from the Household Budget Surveys, we find that, after a brief spike in 1989, income and consumption inequality actually declined to below pretransition levels during...

This paper analyses the changes in the size distribution of wages in Poland over a decade of transition. Until about 1998 there were some forces tending to increase wage inequality and other forces contracting it. The result was a relatively constant level of inequality. Privatisation was the...

The Polish tax and benefit system is presented in the context of a recently developed microsimulation model, SIMPL. The model allows simulating direct taxes, social contributions and public benefits in Poland for the years 2003 and 2005. It is based on the Household Budgets Survey data (Badania...