Abstract

Promoting income equality is one of the main social economic targets for enhancing the equal opportunities of people’s wellbeing. Global challenges started in 2020 (COVID-19, war in Ukraine, spike of energy prices and increased inflation) affected all countries. During COVID-19, the impact of multiple lockdowns was spread in the reduction of the jobs or stand stills of the enterprises. The governments provided, to varying degrees, replacement wages or compensations to enterprises. However the least socially protected population (as economically inactive or with undeclared jobs)  might not have fully benefited from the government funding thus bearing the impact of COVID-19 to a large extent. Technical difficulties have also arisen in household surveys to correctly measure the different impacts and ad hoc solutions had to be implemented. In addition, in 2022 the war in Ukraine and spike of energy prices and inflation, might have affected the different population groups in various extent.
The aim of this session is to explore the impact of the global challenges on the distribution of income across countries with an eye also on measurement issues in household surveys.