In recent years, researchers on transition economies have concluded that income inequality increased in the former socialist countries of eastern Europe and central Asia despite the liberalization of political and economic life. This judgment, however, places too much credence in the data reported by socialist planners and underestimates the cumulative effect of the myriad inequalities present under socialism.

David R. Henderson is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, an Associate Professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Robert M. McNab is an assistant professor of economics in the Defense Resources Management Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Tamás Rózsás is leading councilor in the Ministry of Economy and Transport, Department of Information Technologies and Statistics, Budapest, Hungary.
Economic FreedomEconomic InequalityEconomic PolicyEconomyFree Market EconomicsInternational Economics and Development
Other Independent Review articles by David R. Henderson
Summer 2018 Why We Fight: A Study of U.S. Government War-Making Propaganda
Fall 2016 An Economist’s Case for a Noninterventionist Foreign Policy
Winter 2015/16 The Economy in 2065: Predictions and Cautions
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