The Income of Socialist Upper Classes during the Transition to Capitalism: Evidence from Longitudinal East German Data
利用东德样本面板数据，以拥有电话作为上层阶级标识，发现转型期间该群体相对收入持续更高，且随市场自由化扩大。
We use data from the East German sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to examine the incomes of privileged individuals during the transition from socialism to capitalism. The standard measure of elite status is party membership, but this measure is likely to be inaccurate. Instead we identify the upper class by the ownership of a telephone before the fall of the Berlin Wall. We find that the relative incomes of those who had telephones has been consistently higher during the transition compared to those who did not, and the effect remains even after controlling for ability to the greatest extent possible in the data. This upper-class advantage has grown as the transition to free markets has continued.J. Comp. Econom.,June 1998,26(2), pp. 211–225. W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627-0158; The Socio-Economic Panel, German Institute for Economic Research, D-14191 Berlin, Germany; and European University Viadrina at Frankfurt(Oder), Germany, and The Socio-Economic Panel, German Institute for Economic Research, D-14191 Berlin, Germany.