Inequality and Poverty in Greece After the Access in EMU

The present work is trying to estimate inequality and poverty in Greece after the access in EMU. The data used in this study came from the last Household Budget Survey (HBS) of the entire population of Greece conducted from February 2004 to January 2005 by the National Statistical Service of Greece (NSSG). For the purpose of this study, we used data on both consumption expenditure and household income. Consumption expenditure was defined as including the value of goods and services purchased plus imputed consumption expenditure (consumption of own production, income in kind, imputed rent, etc.). These expenditures were also added to the current income of households. Inequality and poverty in Greece is measured and decomposed to explore the association with particular characteristics of the household or the household head. These characteristics are residence in rural areas, large household size, low educational level, old age of the household head, households headed by farmers and retired persons. We explore the characteristics of the households which are close to the boundary line of poverty. In regard of the common methodological issues, we chose the individual as the unit of analysis of inequality and the distribution data were equivalised to make allowances for economies of scale and differences in needs between adults and minors (known as “family equivalence scalesâ€).