<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The trade off efficiency and equity issue, which is represented by income redistribution, becomes increasingly debated not only in economic and social, but also in political dimension. Solution of this trade-off problem is projected into the implementation of social policy and results achieved in macroeconomics policy, with the goal to define the optimal scope and character of the income redistribution processes. The submitted empirical study responds to this problem through the investigation of research question focused on the existence of a relationship between the social protection expenditure (expenditure on policy of family, old age and unemployment) and the achieved level of socio-economic development (quantified by Human Development Index HDI). The existence of this relationship is statistically tested in a sample of 15 countries. The research sample is heterogeneous in relation to the analyzed indicators, and it contains countries with a different level of economics development and income redistribution policy. Based on the results of quantitative analysis in most surveyed countries, impact of social protection expenditure on the reached level of economic development was confirmed. The correlation between the social protection expenditure and socio-economic development is positive in the case of the family and old-age pension policy, and negative in the case of employment policy</p></abstract>

The trade off efficiency and equity issue, which is represented by income redistribution, becomes increasingly debated not only in economic and social, but also in political dimension. Solution of this trade-off problem is projected into the implementation of social policy and results achieved in macroeconomics policy, with the goal to define the optimal scope and character of the income redistribution processes. The submitted empirical study responds to this problem through the investigation of research question focused on the existence of a relationship between the social protection expenditure (expenditure on policy of family, old age and unemployment) and the achieved level of socio-economic development (quantified by Human Development Index HDI). The existence of this relationship is statistically tested in a sample of 15 countries. The research sample is heterogeneous in relation to the analyzed indicators, and it contains countries with a different level of economics development and income redistribution policy. Based on the results of quantitative analysis in most surveyed countries, impact of social protection expenditure on the reached level of economic development was confirmed. The correlation between the social protection expenditure and socio-economic development is positive in the case of the family and old-age pension policy, and negative in the case of employment policy

Income Redistribution and Socio-economic Development

Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Economics, Department of Public Economics and Regional Development, Tajovského 10, 975 90 Banská Bystrica, Slovak Republic

College of Logistics in Prerov, Department of Economic, Legal and Social Sciences, Palackého 1381/25, 750 02 Prerov, Czech Republic

Review of Economic Perspectives

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

{"article-title":"Income Redistribution and Socio-economic Development"}

The trade off efficiency and equity issue, which is represented by income redistribution, becomes increasingly debated not only in economic and social, but...

Income Redistribution and Socio-economic Development

Published Online: Jul 10, 2014

Page range: 91 - 104

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2014-0005

© by Beáta Mikušová Mericková

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.