Individuals and Households in the Czech Republic: Transformation Changes and Cross-National Comparison

Individuals and Households in the Czech Republic: Transformation Changes and Cross-National Comparison

Researcher: Jiří Večerník

Issued by: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic

Time of researching the project:  2008 - 2010

The proposed project intends to analytically interlink the perspectives of individuals and households in the area of income distribution and related socio-economic behaviour of the Czech population after 1989 and in comparison with other EU countries. The analysis of social and economic relationships at the micro level is crucial for policy making and assessment. The questions concern 1) the size and structure of households, 2) the size and disparities of income, 3) income packaging and the impact of tax/transfers redistribution, 4) the perception of household well-being, the financial situation and consumer deprivation, 5) household structure with regard to enterpreneurial activities of household members, 6) relationships between religious engagement of individual members, i.e. between personal and family religious denomination and practicing. The thematic frame of the analysis is regime change and corresponding transformation of social structures.

All the above questions can basically be answered using data sources that are already available. For a comparison with the past there are Microcensuses data from 1988, 1996 and 2002 in the archive of the Department of Economic Sociology. These data can be linked with the survey “Living Conditions 2005”, which was a part of the EUROSTAT survey programme EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions), providing data for the EU-25. Thus we will be able to make an analysis of historical trends covering at least 15 years, plus a cross-national comparison. The other important sources are opinion surveys of Eurobarometer. For religional behaviour, special qualitative and quantitative sources will be used.