What Happened to the Middle Class in the New Market Economies? The Case of Croatia and Poland
Year: 2010
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: 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 between 2000 and 2001, while in Croatia it returned to its initial, mid-1990s levels despite a temporary drop in the size.Our analysis of consecutive Labor Force Surveys suggests that the composition of the middle class underwent no serious structural changes over the past decade.Th e most important fi nding is that highly skilled workers have moved
Authors: Iva Tomić, Joanna Tyrowicz
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1524857531