ABSTRACT
In all transition economies, distribution problems have been high on the political agenda. The evaluation of these problems is difficult, from both theoretical and empirical points of view. Theoretically, the necessity of interpersonal utility comparisons causes many ‘pure’ theorists to shun topics such as income or wealth distribution. Empirically, lack of data typically makes it impossible to give well-founded evidence on how the transition process influences income or wealth distribution. Only a few realizations of the relevant data are available. Since the process started only in 1989, data on only three years can be reported, and in many cases not even that. Moreover, many of those data are volatile, reflecting short-run transition difficulties rather than long-run trends. Hence, although there is ample and reliable long-run evidence for the years before 1990, evidence for the years since then is lacking.1
