Living standard and its comparative analysis in Lithuania and other countries of the European Union ; Gyvenimo lygis ir jo lyginamoji analizė Lietuvoje ir kitose Europos Sąjungos šalyse
Processes of integration in Europe induce the comparison of the economic indicators in countries of the European Union. According to the forecasts, it will take some time for the new members of the EU to achieve living standards of the old members even taking into account the support from the structural funds. The article, after discussion of the methodological issues of the concept of the living standard, the major components that describe the living standard and the methods of evaluation of economic inequality, presents the comparative analysis of the living standard of the European Union countries that has been performed by comparing GDP and overall income per capita and by calculating Gini coefficients of distribution of the overall income according to the age and education. The last section of the article provides the evaluation of distribution of the household expenditure in Lithuania in 2004- 2007 by using the Theil and Atkinson class indexes and parametrical Gini coefficients for the measurement of inequality.