Modelling the Income Distributions in the Czech Republic since 1992

In: Austrian Journal of Statistics, Band 41, Heft 2, S. 133-152

Abstract

The goal of this article is to study incomes in the Czech Republic and their development since 1992. The net annual per capita income of Czech households is analysed for all households and their respective subpopulations. Data from the microcensus 1992, 1996, 2002, and EU-SILC 2005-2008 surveys carried out by the Czech Statistical Office are used. The subpopulations are defined by a household's location (Bohemia or Moravia), and education and age of the head of the household in order to compare the distributions of the income in Bohemia and Moravia and to quantify the impact of education and age on incomes. The three-parameter lognormal distribution is chosen as a probability distribution to model the per capita income distribution for the whole population and for subpopulations. To estimate the unknown parameters, the maximum likelihood method and that of L-moments are employed. The medians of equalised incomes are given for the EU members and the average growth in the 2004-2007 period is compared. For the Czech Republic, a comparison of the medians of per capita and equivalised income is made.