2072-64142411-140610.17059/ekon.reg.2023-2-8DOES EDUCATION AFFECT INCOME INEQUALITY? A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF FOURTEEN EUROPEAN COUNTRIESВЛИЯНИЕ УРОВНЯ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ НА НЕРАВЕНСТВО ДОХОДОВ: СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ОБЗОР ЧЕТЫРНАДЦАТИ СТРАН ЕВРОПЫhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9436-4336Muszyńska Joanna МушинскаИоаннаJoanna.Muszynska@umk.plhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3902-0896Wędrowska Ewa ВендровскаЕва Ewa.Wedrowska@umk.plNicolaus Copernicus University in ToruńУниверситет Николая Коперника192397409Copyright © 2023 Joanna Muszyńska, Ewa WędrowskaCopyright © 2023 Иоанна Мушинска, Ева Вендровска2023Joanna Muszyńska, Ewa WędrowskaИоанна Мушинска, Ева ВендровскаCC BY 4.0https://www.economyofregions.org/ojs/index.php/er/article/view/608https://www.economyofregions.org/ojs/index.php/er/article/download/608/202

For years, income inequality and its sources have remained the focus of attention of many researchers. The present article aims to expand and update the knowledge concerning the dimensions of household income inequality in European countries. The paper focuses on the association between the educational attainment and income inequality. It is hypothesised that the different level of income inequality observed in different countries can depend on the educational attainment of the society. Therefore, the main research objective of the article is to explain how the education level of the head of household affects income inequality in fourteen West-EU countries. The analysis also has two empirical aims: to assess the divergence in the mean incomes of the distinguished subgroups of households and to measure how much of the overall inequality can be attributed to the distance between these subgroups rather than to inequalities within them. To this end, the Generalised Entropy measures were applied, using the representative microdata derived from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). The obtained results indicate that the education level has a significant impact on the income variability between households, with some differences between countries. The study also revealed that the higher proportion of people with the lowest level of education, the higher inter-group income differentiation. Moreover, the study demonstrates that most countries with a high proportion of well-educated people also show low levels of inequality at the bottom of the distribution. This suggests that income inequality could be controlled through the development of education.

На протяжении десятилетий проблема неравенства доходов и его причин остается в центре внимания исследователей. В данной статье проанализирована связь между неравенством доходов домохозяйств в странах Европы и уровнем образования. Выдвигается гипотеза, предполагающая, что неравенство доходов в разных странах может зависеть от уровня образования семьи. Основная цель данной статьи — объяснить, как уровень образования главы семьи влияет на неравенство доходов в четырнадцати странах Европейского союза. Основными задачами исследования было оценить расхождение в средних доходах выделенных подгрупп домохозяйств и исследовать влияние разницы между этими подгруппами на общее неравенство. Для расчета обобщенной энтропии были проанализированы репрезентативные микроданные, представленные в исследовании «Статистика доходов и условий жизни в EC» (EU-SILC). Полученные результаты свидетельствуют о существенном влиянии уровня образования на неравенство доходов домохозяйств с некоторыми различиями между странами. Исследование также выявило прямую зависимость между долей лиц с самым низким уровнем образования и межгрупповой дифференциацией доходов. Более того, низкий уровень неравенства на границе распределения характерен для большинства стран, в которых высока доля образованных людей. Соответственно, неравенство доходов можно контролировать, развивая систему образования.

household, household income, income inequality, education, household head, decomposition, Generalised Entropy measures, West-EU countries, EU-SILC, microdataдомохозяйство, доход домохозяйства, неравенство доходов, образование, глава домохозяйства, декомпозиция, обобщенная энтропия, страны Запада, EU-SILC, микроданные

The article has been prepared as part of the research project: Income and Inequality of Income of European Households (Eurostat, No. 162/2018-EU-SILC) and is based on data from Eurostat, EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions — EU-SILC CROSS-SECTIONAL UDB 2018 — version 2019-09. The responsibility for all conclusions drawn from the data lies entirely with the authors.

Статья подготовлена в рамках исследовательского проекта: Доходы и неравенство доходов европейских домохозяйств (Евростат, № 162/2018-EU-SILC) и основана на данных Евростата, Статистика доходов и условий жизни в EC — EU-SILC CROSS-SECTIONAL UDB 2018 — версия 2019-09. Ответственность за выводы, сделанные на основе данных, полностью лежит на авторах.

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