Growing Inequalities and Their Impacts in Poland

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Poland experienced a gradual yet steady growth of income and wealth inequalities. Although economic transformation has brought a number of positive outcomes, such as the growth of living standards and the decline of poverty, Poles have been aware of the growing social and economic inequality and disapproved of it, expecting the government to implement policies counteracting it. However, inequalities have not been high on the political agenda; a number of policies introduced in the 1990s and 2000s even had a regressive effect. As a result, growth of inequalities is among the factors undermining political legitimacy of the new Polish democracy.

Keywords: income inequality, Poland, social effects, political legitimacy

JEL Classification: D63, P2

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Brzezinski, Michal and Jancewicz, Barbara and Letki, Natalia, Growing Inequalities and Their Impacts in Poland (November 21, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2385176 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2385176