Comparison and modeling of households food expenditures in Slovakia with regard to the economic status and job position of the head of household

Abstract

Paper focuses on analysis and development of nominal and real cash income as well as modeling of real cash household food expenditures in Slovakia. From the view of the head of household and his job position, paper compares the level and development of real money incomes and food expenditures, in terms of real money incomes quantifies the income elasticity and available demand saturation level for food in families of employees, self-employed persons and pensioners. Generally expected outcome of economic growth is raising standard of living of the population. Its measurement is based on the basic macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP growth and GDP per capita. Such indicators, despite their clearly accepted significance, have a number of limitations that undermine their informational value. These indicators are the product of highly aggregated data. Therefore submitted paper focuses on the analysis of the income situation of the population. This approach allows to obtain objective indicators of the true state income differentiation, respectively income inequality in particular social groups. Society with substantial income differentiation is less resistant against various extreme impact of globalization. The analysis results show that in the years 2004–2011 the real income increased least in the group of self-employed persons by an average of 4.89% (k’ = 1.0489), while in the group of pensioners, the real income increased by an average of 7.08 % (k’ = 1.0708).

Keywords

• income and food expenditures in the households of employees
• self-employed persons and pensioners
• average rates of growth
• income and expenditure elasticity of demand
• modeling of food expenditures