Population, living standards and well-being, 1949–1989

TY - CHAP

T1 - Population, living standards and well-being, 1949–1989

AU - van Leeuwen, Bas

AU - Foldvari, Peter

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Our main goal in this chapter to find out how much the state-socialist regimes of Europe managed to fulfill their promises, and in which respect they failed. To this end we apply a multi-perspective approach, looking at main dimensions of welfare and well-being being as proposed in the literature (i.e. demographic trends, human capital and income). In Section 2 we review the main demographic tendencies: fertility, mortality and migration. Section 3 focuses on the two principle components of human capital: health and education. We show that, after initial success in public health, socialism was not able to maintain its complex health system, and mortality rates started to increase in the mid-1960s.In section 4 we deal with the inability of socialist regimes and their centrally planned economies to achieve a convergence with Western Europe in terms of income. Finally, in Section 5 we offer an overview of the main tendencies with the composite indicator Human Development Index (HDI). We also look at alternative indicators that can capture the general mental state of citizens in these regimes, namely mortality due to hypertension and alcohol consumption. In Section 6 we summarize our findings.

AB - Our main goal in this chapter to find out how much the state-socialist regimes of Europe managed to fulfill their promises, and in which respect they failed. To this end we apply a multi-perspective approach, looking at main dimensions of welfare and well-being being as proposed in the literature (i.e. demographic trends, human capital and income). In Section 2 we review the main demographic tendencies: fertility, mortality and migration. Section 3 focuses on the two principle components of human capital: health and education. We show that, after initial success in public health, socialism was not able to maintain its complex health system, and mortality rates started to increase in the mid-1960s.In section 4 we deal with the inability of socialist regimes and their centrally planned economies to achieve a convergence with Western Europe in terms of income. Finally, in Section 5 we offer an overview of the main tendencies with the composite indicator Human Development Index (HDI). We also look at alternative indicators that can capture the general mental state of citizens in these regimes, namely mortality due to hypertension and alcohol consumption. In Section 6 we summarize our findings.

KW - Eastern Europe

KW - living standards

KW - socialism

KW - popuation

KW - income

KW - happiness

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781138921986

SP - 352

EP - 380

BT - The Economic History of Central, East and South-East Europe: 1800 to the Present

A2 - Morys, Matthias

PB - Routledge

CY - Oxon and New York

ER -