Inequality, poverty and living conditions in Greece: Recent developments and prospects

Abstract

<p>This paper presents the recent trends and<br />the characteristics of inequality, poverty and<br />living conditions in Greece, emphasising on<br />the distributional effects of the austerity<br />measures adopted during the current<br />economic crisis. Moreover, the decomposition<br />analysis of the study examines the structure<br />of inequality and the contribution of various<br />income sources in overall inequality, while<br />the main characteristics of the Greek social<br />solidarity system and the poor distributional<br />impact of social benefits are also discussed. For<br />this purpose, the household income from the<br />Greek Household Budget and the EU Statistics<br />of Income and Living Conditions surveys are<br />used. The available data indicate that income<br />inequality and relative poverty increased,<br />yet not dramatically, during the current<br />crisis, although the composition of the poor<br />population changed considerably. However,<br />the sharp decline in disposable income and<br />the dramatic increase in unemployment led<br />to a significant deterioration in economic<br />prosperity and absolute poverty, i.e. when<br />the poverty line in real terms remains stable<br />in the pro-crisis levels.</p>