The welfare of pensioners during economic transition: an analysis of Hungarian survey data

This paper examines the welfare of pensioners over the early transition period 1987-93 in Hungary. We describe the pension system in detail, and demonstrate the tendency towards compression of the pensioner income distribution towards low income which is induced by the rules and indexation provisions of the pension system. We use the Hungarian Household Budget Surveys to analyse the growth of poverty among the pensioner population and to compare their experience with two other distributionally sensitive groups: households with children and households affected by unemployment. Copyright The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1997.