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REVIEW PAPER
Income Inequality in Post-Socialist Countries: An Analysis of Selected Determinants
1
Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Poznaniu, Polska
Submission date: 2023-02-26
Final revision date: 2023-11-09
Acceptance date: 2024-01-07
Publication date: 2024-03-28
GNPJE 2024;317(1):73-90
KEYWORDS
JEL CLASSIFICATION CODES
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to present and analyse selected factors of income inequality associated with the labour market, socioeconomic conditions, tax systems, globalisation, freedom and financialisation in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia from 1991 to 2019. Income inequality has significantly increased since the economic transition of the early 1990 s. The initial sharp increase in the Gini coefficient was partly expected due to institutional changes following the departure from the communist system, which kept inequality at a low level for ideologic reasons. However, the long-term development of income stratification depended on the approach taken by newly established institutions, external factors, and the preconditions of the transition. Research methods used in this study included cluster analysis employing Ward’s method, cross-sectional and panel regression, statistical analysis, and regression tree analysis with the CART algorithm. The results reveal the existence of several dominant trends in the development of income inequality and a link between the preconditions of economic transformation and the further evolution of the Gini coefficient. The study also identifies the most significant determinants and analyses their co-occurrence.
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