Activity, Incomes and Social Welfare

This book describes and quantifies the major socioeconomic changes that have occurred in four new member states of the EU (Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) since the early 1990s. The period covered was a particularly turbulent one, not only because of the transition process which was well underway but becase of the stablization packages and other economic, monetary and social policy measures, which have had a strong impact at individual and household levels. While previous comparable studies have been carried out, they cover the period only to the mid 1990s, thus this book contains unique and very valuable statistical and micro data. Within the broad framework of socioeconomic change, a number of topics are explored in greater detail. These include changes in activity, occupational status and educational attainment, household income sources and income inequality, and risk of income poverty. The analysis is based on household budget surveys and complemented with other statistical sources, enabling a coherent analysis of the impact of large changes in social policy at household level. The country chapters are all based on common methodological guidelines enabling comparisons to be drawn. This will be an invaluable book for researchers in comparative social policy, poverty and social stratification and economic sociology, and for specialists on Central and Eastern Europe.

Manuela Sofia Stanculescu is Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for the Study of the Quality of Life (RIQL), Romanian Academy, Bucharest and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest, Romania. Tine Stanovnik is Professor of Economics and Senior Reserach Fellow at the Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has been a Fulbright research scholar at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan and Drury University, USA. He has published widely on pension reform issues, income and income distribution, taxation and social protection. He has also acted as a consultant for the World Bank and the ILO.

Contents: Introduction, Michael F. Förster; The changing landscape: demography and activity, Manuela Sofia Stanculescu; Changes in household income, income inequality and poverty: a comparative overview, Tine Stanovnik and Natasa Kump; The transition process and changes in income, income inequality and poverty: the case of Bulgaria, Silviya Nikolova; Changes in income, income inequality and poverty: the case of Hungary, György Molnár and Viktoria Galla; The transition process and changes in income, income inequality and poverty: the case of Romania, Manuela Sofia Stanculescu and Lucian Pop; The transition process and changes in income, income inequality and poverty: the case of Slovenia, Tine Stanovnik and Mitja Cok; Technical annex; References.