Changes in Income Distribution for Different Family Types in Poland

This paper compares income distributions for the family types distinguished by the number of children. The primary contribution to the literature of the current paper was to provide evidence that between 2015 and 2016, when the child benefit Family 500+ program was implemented, there was a reduction in income inequality and poverty, especially for families with many children. The basis for the calculations was microdata from the Household Budget Survey conducted by Statistics Poland. It is the basic source of information on the revenues, expenditures, quantitative food consumption and other aspects of the living conditions of particular groups of the population. The data obtained from this survey allow for the analysis of different factors influencing income distribution and its inequality by means of selected income inequality measures: Gini index and the quintile and decile share ratios. To conduct poverty analysis, the head-count ratio, poverty gap and squared poverty gap indices were applied. The results of the analysis revealed noticeable changes in the income distribution of Polish households, which resulted in poverty reduction, especially for families with many children. In total, mean equivalent income increased by 127 PLN and poverty decreased by 1.2 percentage points. Approximately 160,000 households came out of poverty. The two-sample parametric tests for differences in means and proportions showed that in 2016, the means were significantly larger and poverty rates significantly smaller for all family types but the differences were larger for large families.