Macroeconomics Commons^™

What Happened To The Middle Class In The New Market Economies? The Case Of Croatia And Poland, Joanna Tyrowicz, Iva Tomić

Joanna Tyrowicz

Transition countries are believed to have undergone signifi cant social and economic structural changes. Indeed, the early transition resulted in the modifi cation of ownership structure and recognized processes of labor reallocation as well as in rapid educational booms in many Central and Eastern European countries. In this paper we shed some light on the changes regarding the size and composition of the middle class in two transition countries, Croatia and Poland, in the period 1995-2008. In general, the size of the middle class – as defi ned by individuals with wages around the median – decreased in Poland roughly …

Riding On The Wave? Middle Class In Transition, Joanna Tyrowicz, Joanna Nestorowicz

Joanna Tyrowicz

In this paper we inquire into how structural social changes associated with economic transition affected the relative position of the so called ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ middle classes. We use Polish quarterly labor force surveys over the period 1995-2007 and analyze the distribution of self-reported wages and educational attainment across social groups. In the analysis we account for differences observed in the metropolies (usually benefiting immensely from the economic changes) and non-metropolitan areas (where most of the negative consequences are felt).

We find that although transition has contributed to greater inequalities both in terms of earned income and education, traditional middle …