Abstract
Thesia I. Garner (1996) "Changing
Welfare in a Changing World? Income and Expenditure Inequalities
in the Czech and Slovak Republics."
The question addressed in this research is how changes in
the first years of the transition in the Czech and Slovak
republics are reflected in the income and expenditure
distributions of households. Using data from the 1989 and
1992 Czech and Slovak Family Budget Surveys (FBS), flow
income and consumption expenditure inequalities are examined.
Overall inequality results are presented in addition to
decomposition results by income sources and expenditure
components. Contrary to expectations, household per capita
income and expenditure inequality decreased marginally or
changed little for the two republics from 1989 to 1992 for
households represented by the FBS samples (households headed
by workers, employees, those working in agriculture, and
pensioners without economically active members). Findings in
this study suggest that the trend toward greater income
equality has resulted from transfer benefits becoming more
targeted to those with lower incomes, wage taxes becoming
more progressive, pension incomes being indexed, and an
increasing proportion of persons in the total population
living in pensioner households. In both republics, aggregate
equalizing effects on aggregate expenditure inequality are
from changes in private transportation expenditures, in part
resulting from the removal of subsidies for basic
commodities. The trend toward greater equality is also likely
to be related to the FBS methodology; for example, by 1992, a
smaller percentage of population households were represented
by the FBS sample design than in 1989.
Last Modified Date: July 19, 2008
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