ABSTRACT
In their book on income distribution in Central and Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain, Atkinson and Micklewright (1992) wrote:
It is everyone's hope that the present economic and political reforms in Eastern Europe will lead to marked rises in the national incomes of these countries, narrowing the gap between their standard of living and that found in Western Europe. At the same time, it seems clear that the reforms will do much more than change average income in the countries concerned - they will also change its distribution.
(Atkinson and Micklewright, 1992, p.1)