Regional aspects of income polarization in the Slovak Republic

Abstract

Deepening income polarization is perceived as one of economic and social threats of the global world. The aim of this paper is to present development and the current status of incomes in the Slovak Republic, which is the crucial limitation of the present and future consumption growth. The authors further focus on the income levels of elderly, which are perceived as an important group of consumers within the concept of the silver economy. Analyses in the paper are based on microdata from the Social Insurance Agency in Slovakia. According to the results the income polarization in Slovakia is deepening and economic performance of a number of districts is lowering. This results in extreme barriers for regional consumption at present, as well as threat of generation of significantly low level of pensions in the future. It is obvious that structural nature of unemployment is the fundamental problem of income polarization in the Slovak Republic.