~44Y pq5 Poverty in Eastern Europe in the Years

income led to substantial increases in poverty rates in Poland and Yugoslavia, while poverty in Hungary remained at about the same level as before the crisis. In all three countries urban poverty increased, as the economic condition of state sector workers deteriorated to a much greater extent than that of agricultural and mixed households. The increased poverty was entirely explained by declining income, because the overall income distribution did not change or in some cases improved. In the past decade countries in Eastern Europe have experienced declining growth rates, debt problems, worsening economic efficiency, and a widening technological gap compared with the West. These aspects of the economic crisis in Eastern Europe have been studied recently by, among others, Gomulk