IDENTIFYING THE CHANGES AND DISPARITIES IN INCOME BETWEEN RURAL MUNICIPALITIES OF THE WIELKOPOLSKIE VOIVODSHIP

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to identify the changes and disparities in the income of rural municipalities of the Wielkopolskie Voivodship. As the main source materials, this paper relied on the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office and on Municipal Budget Reports (RB-27s) of the Ministry of Finance. The analysis period was 2010-2017. The variable of focus in this study is total income and its components. The relationships between income categories were assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Also, this paper used basic measures of descriptive statistics and the decile ratio. The analysis of variance (the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA on ranks) was carried out to verify the statistical significance of results, taking into account the functional type of municipalities (determined using the cluster analysis). The functional type was found to have an effect on income disparities in the group of municipalities surveyed. Also, the income gap between municipalities tended to narrow. The income potential of rural municipalities of the Wielkopolskie Voivodship rose by 54% in 2010-2017. This is the consequence of a consistent increase in own income and considerable growth in external income related to the introduction of the Family+ programme. Municipalities are improving their wealth because they derive more and more funds from their share in personal income tax while accessing smaller amounts from sources typical of rural local governments, such as agricultural and forestry taxes. This is related to progressing suburbanization processes which are currently taking place in Poland.