D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their DistributionsReturn

Equivalised incomes are frequently used in order to make adjustments to the actual incomes of households in a way that enables analysis of the relative wellbeing of households of different sizes and compositions (numbers of adults, numbers of children and their ages). In the paper, different methods of evaluation of equivalised units (equivalised numbers of members) are discussed and their impact on derived equivalised incomes is shown. Equivalised total annual net incomes of Czech households (in CZK) defined by four scales (numbers of members, OECD-modified scale, OECD scale, square root scale) are analysed for the time period 2007-2010 based on EU-SILC data from the surveys in 2008 to 2011. The incomes are compared with respect to sample distributions and descriptive characteristics of their level and variability; development in time is also of interest. A strong dependence is expected and quantified (from different points of view) among all the equivalised incomes treated (in given years).

The present paper deals with the issue of different behaviour of wage distribution of two highest and two lowest-paid sectors of the Czech economy in the period since the beginning of the global economic crisis; the former ones are the sectors of "Financial and Insurance Activities" and "Information and Communication", the latter ones being those of "Accommodation and Food Service Activities" and "Administrative and Support Service Activities". The aim is to capture the differences between these two groups of sectors, not only in terms of wage levels, but also as far as the variability and concentration of wage distribution is concerned. The gross (nominal) monthly wage in CZK represents a research variable. The paper focuses on different developments of wage distribution of the above sector groups in time, wage level forecasts for 2015 and 2016 being included.

The article deals with the art market and key dimensions of investment in art and distinguishes the peculiarities of selection of artworks for investment purposes, covering the main features of the art market. Methodologies of composition of art price indices are analysed. An art market trend analysis is conducted based on statistical data and variations of the Artmarket Global index for the last decade. Using the ARIMA forecasting method, the forecast of artwork price changes in 2014-2015 is conducted. The forecast is presented for the aggregate Artmarket Global index and for different art movements (old masters, impressionism and post-impressionism, modern art, contemporary art) to figure out which of them are the best for investments in the near future. The paper further investigates a new Artistic Power Value (APV) ratio and its adequacy for analysis which makes it easy to assess the suitability of investment in artworks and to compare works of art from various sections. Finally, investment decision-making characteristics of the art market are distinguished.

In this paper we systematize existing theoretical and empirical, often contradictory, knowledge of leading international economists and foreign institutions about reciprocal and causal relations between income distribution, economic growth and income poverty, in order to highlight the importance of income distribution in the economic system, the causes and consequences of income distribution at the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels, which knowledge is relevant for both current economic theory and economic policy.
In this paper we seek to answer questions such as: Why is it important to be interested in income inequality? How to relate income inequality and economic growth? Does economic growth affect income inequality or can income inequality increase or decrease the rate of growth? Is the initial level of property or income important for macroeconomic performance and macroeconomic growth? How can the initial level of wealth and income inequality influence the effects of economic growth on poverty reduction? Is there an effective state policy to reduce or eliminate income poverty? Can a government reduce poverty only by promoting economic growth, or is it desirable to choose a combination of growth-redistribution policies?