IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/agr/journl/vxxviiy2020i1(622)p201-217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Romanian population’s perceptions regarding income inequalities and discrimination

Author

Listed:
  • Amalia CRISTESCU

    (Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania)

  • Ana-Maria GATEA

    (National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, Romania)

  • Eva MILITARU

    (National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, Romania)

Abstract

The issue of income inequalities is a priority for the European Union, the more so as, for the last few years, the effects of the economic recession have caused the reversal of the living standards’ convergence tendency and have put more pressure on social security systems. Across European states, the level of income inequality has risen, causing concerns from the standpoint of sustainable economic growth, as well as from the standpoint of social cohesion, the communal sense of belonging, and discrimination. Among the priorities of the Europe 2020 agenda is reducing poverty, but this objective cannot be attained without addressing income inequalities and, implicitly, its effects, such as social discrimination. The analysis we have performed in this article starts from the results of a social survey with 850 respondents. The social survey had the goal of investigating the population’s perceptions and attitudes regarding inequalities, discrimination and vulnerabilities. The results showed that the majority of the respondents believe that their current incomes are not enough to cover even basic needs or only enough to cover basic needs. Monthly income is influenced by gender and place of residence. The highest-earning areas of economic activity are Information and communications and Real estate transactions, while the lowest-earning are registered in Performance, cultural and leisure activities and other service activities. The respondents also generally agree with the granting of social aids and with the fact that these may help reduce income inequalities, however they do not have a favourable opinion of individuals who may be eligible to receive social aid. Regarding discrimination, the results indicated that this phenomenon is most widespread in the areas of work and employment, education and medical assistance, with common individuals, private employers and state institutions being the main actors who discriminate. The respondents believe that discrimination is most often tied to ethnicity, income level, and sexual orientation, the main reason behind discrimination in Romania being a lack of education. Evidently, the European Union’s concerns in carrying out the process of economic and social convergence are also related to policy areas closely tied to fighting the rise of income inequalities and securing equality of opportunity to a greater degree. For these reasons, studying such phenomena at the level of Romanian society is important.

Suggested Citation

  • Amalia CRISTESCU & Ana-Maria GATEA & Eva MILITARU, 2020. "The Romanian population’s perceptions regarding income inequalities and discrimination," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(1(622), S), pages 201-217, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:agr:journl:v:xxvii:y:2020:i:1(622):p:201-217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://store.ectap.ro/articole/1448.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ectap.ro/articol.php?id=1448&rid=138
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Marc Fournier & Isabell Koske, 2012. "The determinants of earnings inequality: evidence from quantile regressions," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2012(1), pages 7-36.
    2. A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), 2000. "Handbook of Income Distribution," Handbook of Income Distribution, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    3. Timothy Smeeding, 1997. "Financial Poverty in Developed Countries: The Evidence from LIS: Final Report to the UNDP," LIS Working papers 155, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. Esping-Andersen, Gosta, 1999. "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198742005.
    5. Neal, Derek A & Johnson, William R, 1996. "The Role of Premarket Factors in Black-White Wage Differences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 869-895, October.
    6. Dorota Witkowska, 2013. "Gender Disparities in the Labor Market in the EU," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 19(4), pages 331-354, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aya Abe, 2001. "Universalism and Targeting: An International Comparison using the LIS database," LIS Working papers 288, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Alexander Sohn, 2015. "Beyond Conventional Wage Discrimination Analysis: Assessing Comprehensive Wage Distributions of Males and Females Using Structured Additive Distributional Regression," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 802, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Grusky, David & Kanbur, Ravi, 2004. "CONCEPTUAL FERMENT IN POVERTY AND INEQUALITY: The View from Economics and Sociology," Working Papers 127149, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    4. Matt L. Huffman & Joe King & Malte Reichelt, 2017. "Equality for Whom? Organizational Policies and the Gender Gap across the German Earnings Distribution," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(1), pages 16-41, January.
    5. Papatheodorou, Christos & Pavlopoulos, Dimitris, 2003. "Accounting for inequality in the EU: Income disparities between and within member states and overall income inequality," MPRA Paper 209, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ngai, L. Rachel & Pissarides, Christopher A., 2009. "Welfare policy and the distribution of hours of work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28698, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Sam Hickey & Tom Lavers & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Jeremy Seekings, 2018. "The negotiated politics of social protection in sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-34, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Ooi, Evarn & Slonim, Robert, 2017. "Racial discrimination and white first name adoption: a field experiment in the Australian labour market," Working Papers 2017-15, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    9. Tahir Andrabi & Jishnu Das & Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Tristan Zajonc, 2011. "Do Value-Added Estimates Add Value? Accounting for Learning Dynamics," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 29-54, July.
    10. Heather Antecol & Kelly Bedard, 2004. "The Racial Wage Gap: The Importance of Labor Force Attachment Differences across Black, Mexican, and White Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    11. Frances McGinnity & Emma Calvert, 2008. "Yuppie Kvetch? Work-life Conflict and Social Class in Western Europe," Papers WP239, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Battaglia, Marianna & Lebedinski, Lara, 2015. "Equal Access to Education: An Evaluation of the Roma Teaching Assistant Program in Serbia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 62-81.
    13. Kevin Lang & Ariella Kahn-Lang Spitzer, 2020. "Race Discrimination: An Economic Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 68-89, Spring.
    14. Maria Iacovou, 2013. "The relationship between incomes and living arrangements: variation between countries, over the life course, and over time," ImPRovE Working Papers 13/15, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    15. Oihana Aristondo & Casilda Lasso De La Vega & Ana Urrutia, 2010. "A New Multiplicative Decomposition For The Foster–Greer–Thorbecke Poverty Indices," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 259-267, July.
    16. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2006. "Job Protection: The Macho Hypothesis," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 22(3), pages 390-410, Autumn.
    17. Oliver Denk & Boris Cournède, 2015. "Finance and income inequality in OECD countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1224, OECD Publishing.
    18. Carneiro, Pedro & Heckman, James J & Masterov, Dimitriy V, 2005. "Labor Market Discrimination and Racial Differences in Premarket Factors," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 1-39, April.
    19. Armando Aliu & Bekir Parlak & Dorian Aliu, 2015. "Hybrid structures: innovative governance, judicial and sociological approaches," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1747-1760, July.
    20. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:agr:journl:v:xxvii:y:2020:i:1(622):p:201-217. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marin Dinu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agerrea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.