The effects on inequality and mobility of exposure to Soviet Communism in Eastern Europe

We compare inequality and social mobility trends in Eastern European countries exposed to Soviet Communist (SC) regimes with those not exposed, using similar welfare measures. We draw upon a rich retrospective dataset that collects relevant welfare measures across regimes including information on living space and self-reported health, and relevant inequality and mobility indices for ordinal and categorical data. Our results suggest evidence of comparable welfare inequality trends in countries exposed to SC and those unexposed. Although individuals exposed to SC enjoyed higher levels of social mobility, differences in inequality across countries exposed to different regimes were negligible. A plausible explanation lies in the countervailing role of the welfare state in countries not exposed to SC and the inefficiency of the bureaucratic allocation of private goods aimed at reducing inequality in countries exposed to SC. • Inequality trends In Soviet-Communist (SC) Europe, compare the rest. • Although SC reduced inequality early, the effect faded over time. • Citizens exposed to SC were exposed to more social mobility. • SC regimes are linked to poorer child health and adult housing crowding.