The Russian Federation offers the unique example of a leading centrally planned economy swiftly transforming itself into a market-oriented economy. This paper offers a comprehensive study of inequality and mobility patterns for Russia, using multiple rounds of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring...

Russia offers the unique example of a leading centrally planned economy swiftly transforming itself into a market-oriented economy. We offer a comprehensive study of inequality and mobility patterns for Russia, using multiple rounds of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Surveys over the past...

We propose and apply several welfare measures that combine average income with a measure of inequality to undertake cross-country comparisons of aggregate welfare for the 1970 to 2000 period. Our welfare measures, which are based on theoretical and empirical findings on the role of inequality in...

"The fundamental question of political theory, one which precedes all other questions about the nature of political life, is why there is a state at all. Is human cooperation feasible without a political authority enforcing it? Or do we need a state to live together? This question also reveals...