IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/1054.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Eastern Europe and Russian Federation - Distributional impact of cash and in-kind social transfers in Eastern Europe and Russia

Author

Listed:
  • Milanovic, Branko

Abstract

The author empirically explores the distributional impactof social transfers in cash and in-kind in Russia and Eastern Europe. He shows that cash transfers, on the whole, are distributed almost uniformly (equally per capita) regardless of one's position in income distribution. By contrast, in market economies, absolute amounts of cash transfers decline as one moves up the income ladder. The family allowance is the only type of cash transfer that is somewhat focused on the poor in the socialist economies. Family allowances are paid for children, and since larger households are typically poorer, some redistribution is achieved. Education benefits are also slanted slightly toward the poor, primarily through the high share of public spending on primary education. As the level of schooling rises, the distribution of education benefits resembles more closely the distribution of income. Health care benefits are distributed uniformly, per capita. In market economies, on the other hand, public health benefits are targeted more to the poor - primarily because the rich often opt out of publicly-run programs. During the transition, cash benefits in the formely socialist countries must become more targeted as well as smaller in absolute amounts. The reforming socialist economies are likely to follow the corporatist earnings-linked model of continental Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Milanovic, Branko, 1992. "Eastern Europe and Russian Federation - Distributional impact of cash and in-kind social transfers in Eastern Europe and Russia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1054, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:1054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1992/12/01/000009265_3961003202931/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Danziger, Sheldon & Haveman, Robert H & Smolensky, Eugene, 1977. "The Measurement and Trend of Inequality: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 505-512, June.
    2. Morrisson, Christian, 1984. "Income distribution in East European and Western countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 121-138, June.
    3. Okrasa, W., 1988. "Redistribution and the two dimensions of inequality : An east-west comparison," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2-3), pages 633-643, March.
    4. Sandstrom, Arne & Wretman, Jan H & Walden, Bertil, 1988. "Variance Estimators of the Gini Coefficient--Probability Sampling," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 6(1), pages 113-119, January.
    5. Mchel O'Higgins & Guenther Schmaus & Geofrey Stephenson, 1989. "Income Distribution And Redistribution: A Microdata Analysis For Seven Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 35(2), pages 107-131, June.
    6. Bergson, Abram, 1984. "Income Inequality under Soviet Socialism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 1052-1099, September.
    7. Paglin, Morton, 1975. "The Measurement and Trend of Inequality: A Basic Revision," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(4), pages 598-609, September.
    8. Jenkins, Stephen, 1988. "Reranking and the Analysis of Income Redistribution," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 35(1), pages 65-76, February.
    9. Davies, J. B. & Shorrocks, A. F., 1989. "Optimal grouping of income and wealth data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 97-108, September.
    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. Marek Gora & Grzegorz Kula & Magdalena Rokicka & Oleksandr Rohozynsky & Anna Ruzik, 2008. "Social Security, Labour Market and Restructuring: Current Situation and Expected Outcomes of Reforms," ESCIRRU Working Papers 5, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Jitoreanu Doina & Chirilă Viorica, 2017. "The Statistical Analysis of the Relationship Between Poverty and Public Expenses in the European Union Countries," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 576-582, December.
    3. Marina Popova, 1996. "Income Inequality and Poverty of Economies in Transition," LIS Working papers 144, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. N. Kakwani, 1996. "Income Inequality, Welfare and Poverty in Ukraine," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 27(4), pages 663-691, October.
    5. Christoph Bühler, 2003. "Additional work, family agriculture, and the birth of a first or a second child in Russia at the beginning of the 1990s," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2003-012, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

    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. Milanovic Branko, 1994. "Cash Social Transfers, Direct Taxes, and Income Distribution in Late Socialism," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 175-197, April.
    2. John Fitzgerald & Tim Maloney, 1990. "The Impact of Federal Income Taxes and Cash Transfers On the Distribution of Lifetime Household Income, 1969-1981," Public Finance Review, , vol. 18(2), pages 182-197, April.
    3. Fachinger, Uwe, 2002. "Sparfähigkeit und Vorsorge gegenüber sozialen Risiken bei Selbständigen: Einige Informationen auf der Basis der Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe 1998," MPRA Paper 1126, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ingvild Almås & Magne Mogstad, 2009. "Older or Wealthier? The Impact of Age Adjustments on the Wealth Inequality Ranking of Countries," Discussion Papers 583, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    5. Filip Novokmet, 2018. "The long-run evolution of inequality in the Czech Lands, 1898-2015," World Inequality Lab Working Papers hal-02878212, HAL.
    6. Alan S. Blinder & Irving Kristol & Wilbur J. Cohen, 1980. "The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being," NBER Chapters, in: The American Economy in Transition, pages 415-500, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Filip Novokmet, 2018. "The long-run evolution of inequality in the Czech Lands, 1898-2015," PSE Working Papers hal-02878212, HAL.
    8. Flemming, J.S. & Micklewright, John, 2000. "Income distribution, economic systems and transition," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 843-918, Elsevier.
    9. Paweł Bukowski & Gregory Clark & Attila Gáspár & Rita Pető, 2022. "Social Mobility and Political Regimes: Intergenerational Mobility in Hungary, 1949–2017," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1551-1588, October.
    10. John A. Bishop & John P. Formby & W. James Smith, 1997. "Demographic Change and Income Inequality in the United States, 1976‐1989," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(1), pages 34-44, July.
    11. Branko Milanovic, 2002. "True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calculation Based on Household Surveys Alone," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 51-92, January.
    12. El-Osta, Hisham S. & Morehart, Mitchell J., 2009. "Welfare Decomposition in the Context of the Life Cycle of Farm Operators: What Does a National Survey Reveal?," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 38(2), pages 1-17, October.
    13. Paweł Bukowski & Filip Novokmet, 2021. "Between communism and capitalism: long-term inequality in Poland, 1892–2015," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 187-239, June.
    14. Weizsäcker, Robert K. von, 1995. "Does an Aging Population Increase Inequality?," Discussion Papers 535, Institut fuer Volkswirtschaftslehre und Statistik, Abteilung fuer Volkswirtschaftslehre.
    15. John Creedy, 1991. "Lifetime Earnings and Inequality," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 67(1), pages 46-58, March.
    16. von Weizsacker, Robert K., 1996. "Distributive implications of an aging society," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 729-746, April.
    17. Filip Novokmet, 2018. "The long-run evolution of inequality in the Czech Lands, 1898-2015," Working Papers hal-02878212, HAL.
    18. Milanovic,Branko L., 1990. "Poverty in Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia in the years of crisis, 1978-87," Policy Research Working Paper Series 507, The World Bank.
    19. François Bourguignon & Christian Morrisson, 1984. "La mobilité des salaires sur le cycle de vie : un échantillon de cadres français sur trente ans," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 35(5), pages 929-970.
    20. Alexandre BERTIN & Matthieu CLEMENT, 2007. "Poverty and shortage economy: a reappraisal with the capability approach (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2007-16, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).

    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:wbk:wbrwps:1054. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.