In-work poverty in Lithuania in the context of EU : social, economic and demographic factors

Straipsnio tikslas – ištirti dirbančiųjų skurdo situaciją, tendencijas ir socialines, ekonomines bei demografi nes priežastis Lietuvoje. Nagrinėjant dirbančiųjų skurdo situaciją Lietuvoje, akcentuojama dirbančiųjų skurdo bendroji tendencija ir skurdo lygis pjūviais pagal socialinius, ekonominius bei demografi nius lygmenis. Straipsnyje atskleidžiami Lietuvos dirbančiųjų skurdą formuojantys procesai ir aiškinamas dirbančiųjų skurdo lygio santykis su bendruoju skurdo lygiu bei pajamų pasiskirstymo netolygumu. Nustatyta, kad dirbančiųjų skurdo lygis Lietuvoje 2012 m. nėra aukštas, palyginus su ES šalių vidurkiu. Dirbančiųjų skurdo lygio svyravimui didžiausią poveikį daro ekonominio vystymosi ciklai. Be to, mezolygmenyje dirbančiųjų skurdo lygis priklauso nuo namų ūkių struktūros ir namų ūkio narių užimtumo lygio. Dirbančiųjų skurdo lygiui poveikį daro veiksniai, susiję su darbo pobūdžiu ir išsilavinimu: nepilnas užimtumas bei žemas išsilavinimas sukelia didesnę riziką skursti. Straipsnio analizėje naudojami Eurostato statistiniai duomenys, kurie yra analizuojami pasitelkiant koreliacinės-regresinės analizės metodus ir grafi nį duomenų sugretinimą. Reikšminiai žodžiai: Bendras skurdo lygis; Dirbantieji; Dirbančiųjų skurdo lygis; Pajamų pasiskirstymas; Pajamų pasiskirstymo netolygumas; Skurdo lygis; Socialinės išmokos; At-risk-of-poverty rate; Employees; In-work poverty rate; Income distribution; Income inequality; Poverty rate; Social benefits; Straipsnis parašytas svarbia ir aktualia tema, social benefit

Application consistency of the structure of subjective well-being concept in empirical research

Subjective well-being research represents a new direction in social science and recently is being widely analysed among sociologists, economists and psychologists. We could look at the subjective well-being research from a historical perspective of its origin. Until the last decades of XX century, well-being was most commonly perceived in the sense of income and wealth, that is, in its objective sense. Income and wealth has a rich history of research and well developed methods. Currently the perception of well-being is extended in order to include its subjective element, which represents an individual’s subjective reaction towards objective circumstances of life. Being a new turn in wellbeing research, it needs to be checked for the application consistency of the structure of the subjective well-being concept from the standpoint of existing empirical data. The purpose of this article is to assess the consistency of application of the concept of subjective well-being in empirical research based on the European Values Study and the European Social Survey data of EU countries. It is possible to conclude that there is a clearly developed structure of the subjective well-being, which consists of cognitive and affective appraisals of life. Cognitive appraisal represents a comparison of individual’s life with the standard of good life, and in turn, affective appraisal represents emotions and mood which an individual experiences in his / her life. This structure is implemented in the questionnaires of the European Values Study and the European Social Survey.Empirical results of those three databases are consistent in such a way that it is possible to see a clear division of regions in the context of EU. It is possible to distinguish former command economy countries, which possess lower average subjective well-being than the EU average. The same trend is prevalent in some EU countries of Southern Europe. The opposite trend is observable in traditional market economy countries, where the average subjective wellbeing is higher than the EU average. The former command economy region includes such countries as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia. Slovenia has the double situation. On the one hand, it belongs to the command economy countries, on the other hand, it belongs to the UN Southern Europe region. But in this article it is counted as it would belong to the former command economy region. Southern Europe region in this article includes EU countries classified as Southern Europe according to the UN classification (except Slovenia). Those countries are Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Greece. Traditional market economy region includes EU countries classified as Western Europe according to the UN classification: France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria and some EU countries classified according to the UN classification as Northern Europe: Ireland, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Finland. Correlation analysis confirms subjective well-being data consistency. Correlation between subjective well-being averages from different databases is equal to 0.835

Compensatory welfare of the Lithuanian social insurance system among EU member states

In Lithuania the social insurance system was on agenda of political debates. It is worth admitting that various aspects have been analysed, but comparative analyses of compensatory welfare outcomes are fragmentary. So, the task of this paper is to evaluate the compensatory level of social insurance system of Lithuania in the context of the EU. The task consists of the following objectives: to analyze the application of spheres, features and indicators of social insurance for the typologies of welfare states; to define EU typologies according to compensatory welfare indicators; to evaluate the compensatory level of social insurance system of Lithuania in the context of EU. The theoretical part of the article reviews the importance of social insurance systems in the classification of welfare states based on the ideas of the authors: R. Titmuss, J. Myles, G. Esping-Andersen, K. Salminen, G. Bonoli, W. Korpi and others. The main outcomes of the analyses are revealed, that Lithuanian compensatory welfare in a comparative aspect of the EU context could be described as low. This is caused mainly by insufficient participation of the state in financing of social insurance system. When taking into account the old age pension replacement ratio, unemployment benefit per capita, unemployment of income for elderly people, at risk of poverty rate for unemployed people, the at risk of poverty rate after social transfers in Lithuania has a quite similar position to the United Kingdom, despite the fact that in compensatory welfare Lithuania clearly depends on the Baltic state common model.Straipsnyje pateikiamas Lietuvos socialinio draudimo kompensuojamosios gerovės vertinimas Europos Sąjungos šalių kontekste. Straipsnio teorinėje dalyje apžvelgta socialinio draudimo reikšmė klasifikuojant gerovės valstybes, remiantis R. Titmusso (1974), J. Myleso (1984), G. Esping-Anderseno (1990), K. Salminen (1993), G. Bonoli (1997), W. Korpi, J. Palme (1998) ir kt. idėjomis. Siekiant įvertinti Lietuvos socialinio draudimo kompensuojamąją gerovę palyginamuoju aspektu atlikta socialinės apsaugos sistemų klasterizacija pagal išmokų dydį ir dalyvių įmokas bei valstybės finansavimo apimtis, klasterizuojama ES šalių senatvės ir nedarbo kompensuojamosios gerovė pagal išmokų dydžio ir perskirstymo rodiklius ir vertinamas Lietuvos socialinio draudimo kompensuojamosios gerovės lygis kitų ES šalių atžvilgiu

Compensatory welfare of the Lithuanian social insurance system among EU member states

In Lithuania the social insurance system was on agenda of political debates. It is worth admitting that various aspects have been analysed, but comparative analyses of compensatory welfare outcomes are fragmentary. So, the task of this paper is to evaluate the compensatory level of social insurance system of Lithuania in the context of the EU. The task consists of the following objectives: to analyze the application of spheres, features and indicators of social insurance for the typologies of welfare states; to define EU typologies according to compensatory welfare indicators; to evaluate the compensatory level of social insurance system of Lithuania in the context of EU. The theoretical part of the article reviews the importance of social insurance systems in the classification of welfare states based on the ideas of the authors: R. Titmuss, J. Myles, G. Esping-Andersen, K. Salminen, G. Bonoli, W. Korpi and others. The main outcomes of the analyses are revealed, that Lithuanian compensatory welfare in a comparative aspect of the EU context could be described as low. This is caused mainly by insufficient participation of the state in financing of social insurance system. When taking into account the old age pension replacement ratio, unemployment benefit per capita, unemployment of income for elderly people, at risk of poverty rate for unemployed people, the at risk of poverty rate after social transfers in Lithuania has a quite similar position to the United Kingdom, despite the fact that in compensatory welfare Lithuania clearly depends on the Baltic state common model

Interaction between subjective well-being, Economic activity and education in the EU

The article examines the impact of professional well­being of EU citizens on their life satisfaction at both micro and macro levels. The following indicators were selected to describe the professional well­being: involvment in the official employment, level of education, and job satisfaction. The findings of the article suggest that employed respondents evaluated their subjective well­being significantly higher  as compared to those not participating in the labour market. Similar findings were drawn when comparing subjective well­being of the respondents in relation to their education. Respondents with higher education reported significantly higher statistically proven subjective well­being than those with lower education. In the article, the interpretation of the findings is based on the conceptual model of subjective well­being of needs as well as on the role of employment and education in satisfaction of physiological and socially acceptable needs of individuals. Work activity is more directly linked with the satisfaction of individual needs than education. However, engagement in work has only an impact on subjective well­being if work activity is perceived as job satisfaction. If employment is perceived by individuals as providing greater satisfaction, it tends to make a more positive impact on the subjective well­being of individuals compared to activities that are perceived as providing less satisfaction. Subjektyviosios gerovės sąveika su darbine veikla ir išsilavinimu ES šalyse Santrauka Straipsnyje siekiama įvertinti išsilavinimo, darbinės veiklos ir pasitenkinimo darbu poveikį ES šalių gyventojų subjektyviajai gerovei. Profesinei gerovei aprašyti pasirinkti tokie rodikliai, kaip dalyvavimas oficialioje darbinėje veikloje, išsilavinimo lygis ir pasitenkinimas darbu. Analizės metu nustatyta, kad darbinėje veikloje dalyvaujantys respondentai statistiškai reikšmingai palankiau vertina savo subjektyviąją gerovę nei darbinėje veikloje nedalyvaujantys respondentai. Taip pat ir respondentai, turintys aukštesnį išsilavinimą, statistiškai reikšmingai palankiau įvertino savo subjektyviąją gerovę nei turintys žemesnį išsilavinimą respondentai. Tokios tendencijos aiškinamos tuo, kad darbinė veikla suteikia individui geresnių galimybių tenkinti fiziologinius ir socialiai priimtinus poreikius, o aukštesnis išsilavinimas sudaro geresnių galimybių pasirinkti darbinę veiklą. Taip pat straipsnyje nustatytas stiprus koreliacinis ryšys tarp subjektyviosios gerovės ir pasitenkinimo darbu makrolygmeniu. Tai reiškia, kad šalyse, kuriose vidutinis pasitenkinimas darbu yra aukštesnis, vidutinė subjektyvioji gerovė taip pat turi tendenciją būti aukštesnė. Reikšminiai žodžiai: subjektyvi gerovė, pasitenkinimas darbu, išsilavinimas, profesinė gerovė