Analysis of monetary poverty measures in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Spain

Abstract

[Abstract]: More than 120 million people are at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU. EU leaders have pledged to bring at least 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion by 2020. The fight against poverty and social exclusion is at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Each individual member state will have to adopt one or several national targets. The EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) is the reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social exclusion in the EU. We used Slovak, Czech and Spain EU-SILC data for empirical analysis of monetary poverty measures. We computed monetary poverty measures, namely 3 FGT indexes and Watts index. The aim of this paper is to analyse trends for these indicators in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Spain in the period 2008-2014 and compare results by NUTS 2 regions too. We also assess how individual countries meet the stated objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy in the social area.