Huffman, Sonya K.

Eastern European Economics Vol. 43 (June 2005): 5-20.

The consumption and welfare changes during the transition in rural Poland are evaluated using the virtual price for the rationed goods in the pre-reform period. The rural households did respond to price and real income changes during the transition. The actual changes in consumption patterns are consistent with the elasticity analysis. The results for rural Poland showed a 74-86 percent decline in real household welfare, which was approximately one-half the value obtained using the actual prices. Compared to the previous studies the relative welfare loss for rural residents is slightly higher than the average for Poland.