“…Stretching the government's budgets, the economic break-up made it difficult to maintain the social welfare regime, resulting in a rapid increase in poverty and inequality, a soaring inflation during the early 1990s and the appearance of unemployment*a phenomenon unknown so far (Anderson & Pomfret, 2002;Falkingham, 1999Falkingham, , 2005Milanovic, 1998;Pomfret, 1995Pomfret, , 2006UNICEF, 2001;UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS, 2012). In addition to the characteristics shared by other transition economies, the status of each Central Asian republic within the Soviet Union, and their respective geographies and resource endowments, has largely determined the development path of the countries of the region (Blackmon, 2005;Dowling & Wignaraja, 2006;Pomfret, 1995Pomfret, , 2006Pomfret & Anderson, 2001).…”