Poles' evaluation of the benefits of the Polish economic transformation: A rectification of the misleading of Jeffrey Sachs

In his protracted dispute with Jan Adam over the early benefits of the Polish ‘shock therapy’ approach to economic reform, a key, and still intact, component of Jeffrey Sachs' case has been a relatively favourable 1991 opinion poll about Poles' perceptions of the benefits of economic reform. This reported that a substantial majority of Poles felt their standard of living had improved as a result of the first two years of economic reform. This was an apparently powerful argument in favour of Poland's particular shock therapy approach to economic reform, as residents of other East European countries, some subject to more gradualist reforms, responded much less positively to the identical question put as part of the same research programme. However, the cited result should be seen as posing a mystery that is at odds with other monthly polls in Poland and seems incompatible with the results of the 1991 Polish Parliamentary elections, which showed a return of support to post-communist parties. A deeper analysis of opinion polls which follows solves the mystery, when it is shown how the cited result was in error and was published in a form diametrically opposite to the true result.