Human Capital, Consumption, and Housing Wealth in Transition

This paper focuses on human capital and housing in Slovakia during the economic reforms of the last two decades. We compare households that entered the labour market before and after the economic reforms in 1990. On the one hand, we study the returns to education in different labour market cohorts using household consumption surveys. On the other hand, we analyse the determinants of housing wealth and its impact on consumption. We show that old cohorts are characterised by lower returns to human capital and consumption levels, but higher housing wealth. Thus, we do not identify a clear pattern of winners and losers from transition.