IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jes/journl/y2014v5p5-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income inequality in post-communist Central and Eastern European countries

Author

Listed:
  • Sara ROSE

    (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada)

  • Crina VIJU

    (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada)

Abstract

Income inequality has become an important issue in Central and Eastern European countries during their transition process. This study constructs a model incorporating different categories of factors that impact inequality and tests whether the wealth of a country makes a difference in these relationships. This article shows that different income categories of Central and Eastern European transition countries do experience different relationships between income inequality and its contributing factors: economic, demographic, political, and cultural and environmental. The resulting Random Effects models of the best fit incorporate economic and political factors and show differences in magnitude, direction, and in their significance. These findings add to the literature by taking a cross-country and cross-income view on the impact of various factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara ROSE & Crina VIJU, 2014. "Income inequality in post-communist Central and Eastern European countries," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 5, pages 5-20, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:jes:journl:y:2014:v:5:p:5-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2014_0501_ROS.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Psacharopoulos, George & Steier, Francis, 1988. "Education and the labor market in Venezuela, 1975-1984," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 321-332, June.
    2. Sylwester, Kevin, 2002. "Can education expenditures reduce income inequality?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 43-52, February.
    3. Ravallion, Martin, 1997. "Can high-inequality developing countries escape absolute poverty?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 51-57, September.
    4. Wood, Adrian, 1997. "Openness and Wage Inequality in Developing Countries: The Latin American Challenge to East Asian Conventional Wisdom," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(1), pages 33-57, January.
    5. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    6. Alexei Izyumov & Trista Claxon, 2009. "Models of Capitalism and Income Distribution in Transition Economies: A Comparative Perspective," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 733-758.
    7. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik, 2010. "The emerging aversion to inequality," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754486, HAL.
    8. Aristei, David & Perugini, Cristiano, 2012. "Inequality and reforms in transition countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 2-10.
    9. Ravallion, Martin, 2001. "Growth, Inequality and Poverty: Looking Beyond Averages," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1803-1815, November.
    10. Hongyi Li & Lixin Colin Xu & Heng‐fu Zou, 2000. "Corruption, Income Distribution, and Growth," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 155-182, July.
    11. By Ales BulÌr, 2001. "Income Inequality: Does Inflation Matter?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(1), pages 1-5.
    12. Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa & Eve Caroli & Philippe Aghion, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December.
    13. Philippe Aghion & Simon Commander, 1999. "On the dynamics of inequality in the transition," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 7(2), pages 275-298, July.
    14. J Benson Durham, 1999. "Econometrics of Income Distribution: Toward More Comprehensive Specification of Institutional Correlates," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 41(1), pages 43-74, April.
    15. Li, Hongyi & Squire, Lyn & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 26-43, January.
    16. Mark Gradstein & Branko Milanovic, 2004. "Does Libertè = Egalité? A Survey of the Empirical Links between Democracy and Inequality with Some Evidence on the Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 515-537, September.
    17. Minh Quang Dao, 2008. "Human capital, poverty, and income distribution in developing countries," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(4), pages 294-303, September.
    18. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik, 2010. "The emerging aversion to inequality," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26, January.
    19. Kevin Sylwester, 2002. "Democracy and Changes in Income Inequality," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 1(2), pages 167-178, August.
    20. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10091 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Gianluca Grimalda & David Barlow & Elena Meschi, 2010. "Varieties of capitalisms and varieties of performances: accounting for inequality in post-Soviet Union transition economies," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 379-403.
    22. Sanjeev Gupta & Hamid Davoodi & Rosa Alonso-Terme, 2002. "Does corruption affect income inequality and poverty?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 23-45, March.
    23. Simon C. Parker, 1998. "Income Inequality and The Business Cycle: A Survey of The Evidence and Some New Results," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 201-225, December.
    24. Anneli Kaasa, 2005. "Factors Of Income Inequality And Their Influence Mechanisms: A Theoretical Overview," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 40, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. PALAMARA Daniel R., 2016. "Social Status in Norway and the Law of Jante: An Analysis of ISSP Social Inequality Data," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    2. Anghel Ionuţ-Marian, 2017. "Measuring income inequality: comparative datasets and methodological deficiencies. An overview of income inequality in Romania during postsocialism," Social Change Review, Sciendo, vol. 15(1-2), pages 55-82, December.
    3. Dimitar NIKOLOSKI & Miroslav GVEROSKI, 2017. "Assessing the poverty-growth-inequality nexus: the case of Macedonia," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 8, pages 29-43, June.
    4. Mohamad, Nurul Muna & Masron, tajul & Widiyanti, Risna & Mohd Jamil, Muslimah, 2020. "Islamic Banking and Income Inequality: The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 54(2), pages 77-90.
    5. Oancea, Bogdan & Andrei, Tudorel & Pirjol, Dan, 2017. "Income inequality in Romania: The exponential-Pareto distribution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 469(C), pages 486-498.
    6. Yogeeswari Subramaniam & Tajul Ariffin Masron & Mastura A. Wahab & Md Aslam Mia, 2021. "The impact of microfinance on poverty and income inequality in developing countries," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 35(1), pages 36-48, May.

    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. Ayal Kimhi, 2004. "Growth, Inequality and Labor Markets in LDCs: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 1281, CESifo.
    2. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    3. Carmignani, Fabrizio, 2009. "The distributive effects of institutional quality when government stability is endogenous," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 409-421, December.
    4. David Aristei & Cristiano Perugini, 2014. "Speed and Sequencing of Transition Reforms and Income Inequality: A Panel Data Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(3), pages 542-570, September.
    5. Nancy Birdsall, 2008. "Income Distribution: Effects on Growth and Development," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Jaime Ros (ed.), International Handbook of Development Economics, Volumes 1 & 2, volume 0, chapter 48, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. You, Jong-Sung & Khagram, Sanjeev, 2004. "Inequality and Corruption," Working Paper Series rwp04-001, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    7. Martin Ravallion, 2012. "Why Don't We See Poverty Convergence?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 504-523, February.
    8. Alexander Libman & Anastassia Obydenkova, 2019. "Inequality and historical legacies: evidence from post-communist regions," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 699-724, November.
    9. Anneli Kaasa, 2005. "Factors Of Income Inequality And Their Influence Mechanisms: A Theoretical Overview," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 40, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    10. L. ALAN WINTERS & NEIL McCULLOCH & ANDREW McKAY, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty: The Evidence So Far," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 14, pages 271-314, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Gourdon, Julien, 2006. "Openness and Inequality in Developing Countries: A New Look at the Evidence," MPRA Paper 4176, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Kanbur, Ravi & Lustig, Nora, 1999. "Why is Inequality Back on the Agenda?," Working Papers 127690, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    13. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2002. "Growth Is Good for the Poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 195-225, September.
    14. Noman Arshed & Awais Anwar & Nabeela Kousar & Samra Bukhari, 2018. "Education Enrollment Level and Income Inequality: A Case of SAARC Economies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 1211-1224, December.
    15. Jalil, Abdul, 2012. "Modeling income inequality and openness in the framework of Kuznets curve: New evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 309-315.
    16. Antonio Rodriguez & Carlyn Ramlogan, 2007. "Corruption, privatisation and the distribution of income in Latin America," Development Research Working Paper Series 09/2007, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    17. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "Growth, Inequality and Poverty Relationships," IZA Discussion Papers 1338, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Islam, Md. Rabiul & McGillivray, Mark, 2020. "Wealth inequality, governance and economic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-13.
    19. Svedberg, Peter, 2003. "World Income Distribution: Which Way?," Seminar Papers 724, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    20. Anderson, Edward, 2022. "The correlates of declining income inequality among emerging and developing economies during the 2000s," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

    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:jes:journl:y:2014:v:5:p:5-20. 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: Alupului Ciprian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csjesro.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.