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This paper analyses the patterns of involvement in the informal economy by households in post-communist countries between 1992 and 1998. Countries covered include Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, FRY, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Belarus. The analysis covers the extent to which households depend upon the formal economy or the informal economies, including household production, the social economy, the cash economy for their means of livelihood. In the paper it is argued that whilst countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary have seen an expansion in the formal economy and a decline in the informal economies, other countries such as Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria have seen an expansion of the informal economies and decline of the formal over the same period. The analysis also finds that whilst the formal economy and the cash economy is important for better educated and better off households to improve their standard of living, the household economy is more a safety net for poor, rural households with older members. The analysis draws upon the New Democracies Barometer for 1992 (N = 10,160), 1994 (N = 10,709), 1996 (N = 10,069) and 1998 (N = 11,296). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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