INCOME INEQUALITY AND LABOUR INCOME SHARE IN VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES

The observed trend for the last thirty years shows that the labour income share has typically fallen alongside an increase in income inequality, especially when, as in most advanced economies, the decline in labour shares was concentrated at the lower end of the labour income distribution. In theory, the relationship between the labour income share and income inequality is not clear-cut, depending largely on how labour and capital incomes are distributed as well as the magnitude of other sources of household incomes and the impact of taxes and social transfers. The contribution analyses the relationship between the two in the case of four Visegrad member states (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic) for the period of 10 years (2010 - 2019). The contribution confirms that also for these Central European countries this negative relationship between the labour income share and income inequality is valid as in the other advanced economies.