[PEN-L:4229] Re: Re: Re: Re: Slovakia and the Czech Republic

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,

Didn't Canada get it in "Oh , Canada" ?

Charles

>>> Tom Lehman <uswa12@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 03/08/99 02:40PM >>>
Dear Barkley and Peter,

Here is a question that I pose to my American Slovak friends.  Who got the "o"
in Czechoslovkia?  Is it now Czech'o or o'Slovakia?

Your email pal,

Tom L.

"J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote:

> Peter,
>      The Gini for Slovakia is for 1993-94 and is the number appearing in
> both the 1997 World Bank _World Development Report: The State in a Changing
> World_ and in a study by Juha Honkkila for UNU/WIDER in 1997 entitled,
> "Privatization, Asset Distribution and Equity in Transition Economies,"
> Working Paper no. 125.  The Gini for 1987-89 can also be found in Honkkila's
> paper.  A similar number for the earlier period appears in Richard Pomfret,
> "Poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic," Working Paper no. 98-5, Dept. of
> Economics, University of Adelaide, Australia.
>      This number and others for 14 other transition economies, along with
> estimates of degrees of corruption, can be found in the paper that Marina
> Rosser and I presented at the New York meetings, "Divergent Distribution
> Dynamics in Transitional Economies."
>      You are certainly correct that these numbers on income distribution are
> very iffy, both from the Soviet era and from more recently, some in
> particular.  However, when one sees the measured Gini in Slovakia remaining
> virtually unchanged while one sees that for Russia soaring from 26.0 to 44.6
> between 1987-89 and 1993-94, then I think that we are observing a real
> difference between what is happening in Slovakia and what is happening in
> Russia.  Russia's inequality is now noticeably greater than that in the US.
>       As for your letter to the NYT, distribution in CR had not yet become
> drastically unequal as of 1993-94, although there was some increase in
> inequality.  Of course the blankety blank has hit the fan since then there
> and I would guess that the numbers have gotten much worse.  If you write one
> up, I might sign on depending....
> Barkley Rosser
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Dorman <dormanp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Monday, March 08, 1999 1:57 PM
> Subject: [PEN-L:4221] Re: Re: Slovakia and the Czech Republic
>
> >This is interesting.  How accurate are the data?  (I remember how
> >misleading much of the CMEA data were.)  More generally, is my thumbnail
> >sketch of Slovakia and the CR correct?  If so, is a letter to the NYR
> >warrented?  Any collaborators?
> >
> >Peter
> >
> >"J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote:
> >>
> >> Peter,
> >>      An interesting tidbit is that the Slovak income distribution may be
> the
> >> most equal of any nation on the face of the earth right now.  Last Gini
> >> coefficient I saw was 20, almost unchanged from the pre-transition period
> >> when it along with its former Czech partner had the most equal income
> >> distribution in the CMEA.
> >>      I would argue that maintaining equality of income distribution, as
> >> Belarus has also done, is a key element in avoiding emergence of
> corruption
> >> in transition economies.
> >> Barkley Rosser
> >
> >