Nierówności dochodowe a jakość życia w Polsce

Abstract

During last decades there appeared an increasing number of evidences that income inequality influences negatively such indicators of quality of life as life expectancy at birth or crime rate, both between and within developed countries. Although there are some theoretical (sociological and psychological) explanations of this phenomenon, no consensus has been reached yet according to the very existence of the effect. Some substantial critique takes place, undermining the authenticity of the effect and its interpretation.

This study was performed in order to investigate the possible existence of this effect in Poland. We have chosen some important indicators of quality of life for different voivodeships and compare their values with the differences of inequalities in various regions of the country, using partial correlations and linear models. Generally, we have not detected a negative relationship between inequality and quality of life. In the paper we briefly discuss the possible reasons of such a result.