A Note on Income Inequality in East and Central Europe

This paper examines the proposition that the transition process to a capitalist economic system in Eastern and Central European nations has introduced greater income inequality than in long-time capitalist nations at similar stages of development. In the empirical analysis, I use comparable inequality data from the Luxembourg Income Study, hold constant a number of general causal determinants of inequality, and show that such inequality in Eastern and Central Europe is significantly less than in nations where capitalism has long held sway.