Declining incomes and growing income inequality have led to a rise in poverty in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This study examines poverty and social assistance in six countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Russia, and Kyrgyz Republic - to compare the poverty profiles and the correlates of poverty between the two regions. The study finds that the profile of poverty is more sharply defined in Eastern Europe than in the former Soviet Union, where poverty is more widespread. This holds the potential for better targeting of social assistance in...

Who is the richest person in the world, ever? Does where you were born affect how much money you'll earn over a lifetime? How would we know? Why--beyond the idle curiosity--do these questions even matter? In The Haves and the Have-Nots, Branko Milanovic, one of the world's leading experts on wealth, poverty, and the gap that separates them, explains these and other mysteries of how wealth is unevenly spread throughout our world, now and through time. Milanovic uses history, literature and stories straight out of today's newspapers, to discuss one of the major divisions in our social...

Branko Milanovic presents a bold account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale. Using vast data sets, he explains the forces that make inequality rise and fall within and among nations over time. He reveals who has been helped by globalization, who has been hurt, andwhat policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice.