Old and New Economic Inequalities: The Czech Case

Under the transformation period, economic inequality is assuming new meanings and accents, and its importance growing. We show recent changes and various facets of inequality as displayed in distributions of earning, household incomes and wealth. In earnings, instead of the system covering the costs of labour force reproduction, human capital is better rewarded, thus, the importance of ownership and job grows. In household income, the „demographic“ pattern is slowly replaced by a market model which strengthens socio-economic characteristics rather than age and household composition. New sources of wealth and poverty and possible redistributional flows are shown and objective changes are compared with their perception in peoples' minds. We conclude with an assessment of the specific situation and problems of the Czech Republic.