IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iez/survey/ces-v12_04-2010_tomic-tyrowicz.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Happened to the Middle Class in the New Market Economies? The Case of Croatia and Poland

Author

Listed:
  • Iva Tomic

    (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Joanna Tyrowicz

    (University of Warsaw, National Bank of Poland, Rimini Center for Economic Analysis, Warsaw, Poland)

Abstract

Transition countries are believed to have undergone significant social and economic structural changes. Indeed, the early transition resulted in the modification of ownership structure and recognized processes of labor reallocation as well as in rapid educational booms in many Central and Eastern European countries. In this paper we shed some light on the changes regarding the size and composition of the middle class in two transition countries, Croatia and Poland, in the period 1995-2008. In general, the size of the middle class – as defined by individuals with wages around the median – decreased in Poland roughly between 2000 and 2001, while in Croatia it returned to its initial, mid-1990s levels despite a temporary drop in the size. Our analysis of consecutive Labor Force Surveys suggests that the composition of the middle class underwent no serious structural changes over the past decade. The most important finding is that highly skilled workers have moved above the position of middle class in Croatia, while in Poland they have mostly extended the middle class.

Suggested Citation

  • Iva Tomic & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2010. "What Happened to the Middle Class in the New Market Economies? The Case of Croatia and Poland," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 12(1), pages 9-44, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:iez:survey:ces-v12_04-2010_tomic-tyrowicz
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/80207
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Birdsall, N. & Graham, C. & Pettinato, S., 2000. "Stuck in the Tunnel: Is Globalization Muddling the Middle Class?," Papers 14, Brookings Institution - Working Papers.
    2. Branko Milanovic & Shlomo Yitzhak, 2006. "Decomposing World Income Distribution: Does The World Have A Middle Class?," IBT Journal of Business Studies (JBS), Ilma University, Faculty of Management Science, vol. 2(2), pages 88-110.
    3. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2008. "What Is Middle Class about the Middle Classes around the World?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 3-28, Spring.
    4. Andrew Newell & Mieczyslaw W. Socha, 2007. "The Polish wage inequality explosion," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15, pages 733-758, October.
    5. Birdsall, Nancy, 2007. "Reflections on the Macro Foundations of the Middle Class in the Developing World," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt4nt1n232, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    6. Tito Boeri, "undated". "Optimal Speed of Transition 10 Years After," Working Papers 154, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    7. Easterly, William, 2001. "The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 317-335, December.
    8. John Haltiwanger & Hartmut Lehmann & Katherine Terrell, 2003. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in Transition Countries," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 11(2), pages 205-219, June.
    9. Danijel Nestic, 2005. "Income distribution in Croatia:what do the household budget survey data tell us?," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(1), pages 39-53.
    10. Milanovic, Branko & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2002. "Decomposing World Income Distribution: Does the World Have a Middle Class?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(2), pages 155-178, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Florencia Torche & Luis F. Lopez-Calva, 2013. "Stability and Vulnerability of the Latin American Middle Class," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 409-435, December.
    2. Reham Rizk & Ricardo Nogales, 2017. "Revisiting the Middle-Class Myth: Evidence From A Cross-Country Analysis of African Social Progress," Working Papers 1139, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 2003.
    3. Florencia Torche & Luis F. Lopez-Calva, 2013. "Stability and Vulnerability of the Latin American Middle Class," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 409-435, December.
    4. Ravallion, Martin, 2010. "The Developing World's Bulging (but Vulnerable) Middle Class," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 445-454, April.
    5. Steffen Dyck, 2009. "Emerging Asia's Middle Class-A Force to be Reckoned With," Working Papers id:2232, eSocialSciences.
    6. Tsiry ANDRIANAMPIARIVO, 2014. "Moderate Prosperity, an adaptation of the Middle Class concept to a Malagasy rural area: the case of Itasy," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2014-20, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    7. Mariam Shahzadi & Muhammad Faraz Riaz & Sofia Anwar & Samia Nasreen, 2017. "How unequal is the size of middle class in the rural urban areas of Punjab province," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(2), pages 253-266, February.
    8. Andy Sumner, 2012. "The Buoyant Billions: How “Middle Class†Are the New Middle Classes in Developing Countries? (And Why Does It Matter?)," Working Papers id:5169, eSocialSciences.
    9. Zhang Yuan & Guanghua Wan & Niny Khor, 2012. "The rise of middle class in rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 36-51, January.
    10. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Arjun Jayadev & Rahul Lahoti & Sanjay Reddy, 2015. "The Middle Muddle: Conceptualizing and Measuring the Global Middle Class," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 193, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    12. Chun, Natalie & Hasan, Rana & Rahman, Muhammad Habibur & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet A., 2016. "The role of middle class in democratic diffusion," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 536-548.
    13. Rogelio Madrueño-Aguilar, 2017. "Global Income Distribution and the Middle-Income Strata: Implications for the World Development Taxonomy Debate," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Ozturk, Ayse, 2016. "Examining the economic growth and the middle-income trap from the perspective of the middle class," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 726-738.
    15. Çakır, Mustafa Yavuz & Kabundi, Alain, 2013. "Trade shocks from BRIC to South Africa: A global VAR analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 190-202.
    16. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice A. Asongu & Julio Mukendi Kayembe, 2016. "Middle Class in Africa: Determinants and Consequences," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 527-549, October.
    17. David Tschirley & Thomas Reardon & Michael Dolislager & Jason Snyder, 2015. "The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern Africa: Implications for Food System Transformation," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 628-646, July.
    18. Clément, Matthieu & Fauré, Yves-André & Berrou, Jean-Philippe & Combarnous, François & Darbon, Dominique, 2020. "Anatomy of the Brazilian middle class: identification, behaviours and expectations," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    19. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Income Levels, Governance and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 71-103, February.
    20. C�line Bonnefond & Matthieu Cl�ment & Fran�ois Combarnous, 2015. "In search of the elusive Chinese urban middle class: an exploratory analysis," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 41-59, March.
    21. repec:ilo:ilowps:485512 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. David Tschirley & Thomas Reardon & Michael Dolislager & Jason Snyder, 2015. "The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern Africa: Implications for Food System Transformation," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 628-646, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    middle class; wage inequality; labor market; transition; Croatia; Poland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iez:survey:ces-v12_04-2010_tomic-tyrowicz. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Doris Banicevic (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eizgghr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.