Development and subsequent comparison of the cost of living in different social groups in Czech Republic

Abstract

This paper deals with development and subsequent comparison of the cost of living in different social groups in the Czech Republic. There is an analysis performed using data available from entry of the Czech Republic into the European Union till 2011. For this purpose, it will be interesting to track those measures in a timeline including the period before the last economic crisis, during the crisis as well as after this event. The economic crisis began in 2007 and has significantly affected living conditions of many people, who had to change their consumer behaviour or lifestyle. In the file used for the analysis, the individuals are divided into different social groups (i.e. employees, self-employed, pensioners and unemployed). The paper is focused on individuals according to the division of expenditure COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose). As the second source of the performed analysis are taken the results of a sample survey EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) from 2005 till 2011. The paper considers mainly cost of living, but also household income because it is possible to determine from this indicator how much money households have left for other activities (as disposable income). The analysis is focused on whole set of individual households including low-income households at risk of poverty. According to widely used methodology within the European Union, households are considered to be at the risk of poverty if their income is lower than its median, which is 60%.