INCOME INEQUALITY OF POLISH RURAL AND URBAN HOUSEHOLDS IN 2010-2017

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the level of income inequality of rural households against other classes of household residence: small, medium and large cities. The assessment of intra-group or internal inequality was based on Theil-L and Theil-T indices. Inter-group inequality was measured summarily by the inter-group (or ‘between’) component in the Theil decomposition, and more verbosely by income disparity analysis. Research drew on individual, non-identifiable data from the “Household Budget Survey”, carried out by the Central Statistical Office in 2010, 2015 and 2017. It was found that despite rising income, rural households were still the poorest of all residence classes and lagged far behind average Polish households. Their internal income inequality was, throughout the study period, higher than in classes of households living in small-sized and medium-sized towns. This class was also most responsible for total income inequalities in Polish households.

Keywords

• income inequality
• Theil-L index
• Theil-T index
• Theil index decomposition
• rural households