Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income

Anthony Barnes Atkinson, John Micklewright

Cambridge University Press, 1992 - Business & Economics - 448 pages

Who gains and who loses from economic transformation in Eastern Europe is a key question, but one which is too rarely discussed. This book examines the evidence about the distribution of income and poverty under Communism in Eastern Europe. Contrary to popular impressions, a great deal of information exists about the distribution of earnings and household incomes in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. With glasnost much material previously kept secret in the USSR became available. The book contains extensive statistical evidence that has not previously been assembled on a comparative basis, and takes the story right up to the end of Communism. The findings bring out the differences in experience between countries under Communism: between Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, between Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, and between the newly independent states of the former USSR.

Contents

• Introduction and summary: 1
• Why study the distribution pre1990?: 22
• Data availability quality and comparability: 40
• The distribution of earnings: 76
• The distribution of household incomes: 106
• Interpreting income data: 145
• Measuring poverty: 178
• Poverty and the safety net: 214
• Sources and methods: 246
• List of tables in statistical appendix: 284
• Bibliography: 26
• Name index: 35
• Subject index: 38

About the author

Anthony Barnes Atkinson was born in Caerleon, United Kingdom on September 4, 1944. He received a bachelor's degree in 1966 from Churchill College, Cambridge. He was a fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge, from 1967 to 1971, a professor of economics at the University of Essex from 1971 to 1976, and a professor of political economy at University College, London, from 1976 to 1979. He taught at the London School of Economics from 1980 to 1992. He then returned to Cambridge, where he taught for two years, before moving to Nuffield College, where he taught from 1994 to 2005. As an economist, he studied the changes in the distribution of wealth and income, which allowed for a better understanding of poverty and inequality. He along with other scholars organized the World Wealth and Income Database, a resource for the comparative study of inequality. He wrote more than 40 books including The Distribution of Personal Wealth in Britain written with A. J. Harrison, Lectures on Public Economics written with Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Inequality: What Can Be Done? He died from myeloma on January 1, 2017 at the age of 72.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income; Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income, Anthony Barnes Atkinson
• Authors: Anthony Barnes Atkinson, John Micklewright
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992
• ISBN: 0521438829, 9780521438827
• Length: 448 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economic Conditions; Business & Economics / Economic History; Business & Economics / Economics / General; Business & Economics / Economics / Macroeconomics; Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy