I31 - General Welfare; Well-BeingReturn

This paper aims to use cluster analysis to monitor changes in the social regimes of EU countries in the context of their economic situation. In the first step, the paper provides an overview of theoretical studies and categorizes countries into individual social regimes based on available studies. Subsequently, hierarchical cluster analyses are performed for 2007 and 2019, one for a group of redistributive variables and one for socio-economic variables. The cluster analysis confirmed that differences among individual social regimes are blurred over time, and belonging to a social regime does not automatically lead to occurrence in the same cluster. The new and old member states are mixed in terms of redistributive variables, while economic differences among these countries are still present.

The aim of this paper is to develop subjective synthetic indicators that quantify the quality of life in the different countries of the EU-28, with data from the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS). We add other indicators to the general synthetic ones in order to quantify the different dimensions of quality life due to its multidimensional nature. The successive but unchained application of the principal component analysis and the Mazziota-Pareto analysis allows us to classify 5 dimensions of quality of life: subjective component of governance, public services, environment, general satisfaction with life, and socioeconomic issues. We verify that countries with the lowest or highest positions in the general index usually keep that position in most dimensions. The spatial perspective is fundamental to study of regional development. For this reason, the next objective is the analysis of differences by spatial location using the variance analysis. The general indicator shows significant differences between EU countries but it does not show differences in the quality of life of European citizens in urban and rural areas.

This study is a contribution to research into the relationship between commuting and life satisfaction. Our focus is on high school students. The research is based on a questionnaire survey among students in three countries: the Czech Republic, Italy and Slovenia. The analysis is conducted using six OLS regression models: three countries and both boys and girls in each country. The results show significant variance between the countries as far as the relation between commuting time and life satisfaction is concerned. A strong relation has been found only in the case of the Czech Republic. Possible reasons for this disparity include differences in the way various modes of transportation affect one's commuting experience, the role of climate and cultural aspects. In addition, variance has been found between the way boys and girls approach as well as experience commuting. Finally, our results confirm that commuting is a highly underestimated factor of happiness among students.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the interplay between variables pertaining to the satis-faction of life and economic sentiments of citizens of selected European countries. The analysis of the connections will be conducted based on existing subjective primary data. The data in question are results of international comparative surveys (European Social Survey, ESS; the OECD's Better Life Initiative) and results of consumer economic sentiment surveys ordered by the European Commission. The research procedure also benefitted from the selected items of literature available in the form of books and articles. Population economic sentiments are subject to cyclical changes connected with the changes in economic situation in individual countries. The analysis of secondary data allows for the con-clusion that there is a statistically significant direct or indirect strong relationship between assessments of life satisfaction and consumer confidence indicator. The grouping of the researched countries based on secondary data has made it possible to capture the similarities between individual states.

Inflation rates have traditionally been measured by the percentage change in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The market basket represents the spending patterns of average household. However, households differ in their spending patterns and there are differences in the price changes of various goods and services. Therefore, different households experience different inflation rates. This paper finds that these differences have been significant in the Czech Republic during the period 1995-2010. Only around 60% of households actually experienced an inflation rate that was similar to the national average. Furthermore, the higher the average inflation rate over time, the lower the percentage of households whose inflation rate was similar to that average. The main determiners of inflation were expenditures for housing and energy, food and non-alcoholic drinks. In most years, pensioners and low-income households faced significantly higher inflation rates than the average rate for the whole population.

This paper presents an insight into problems of financing the greatest part of public services for the population - the health care. The situation in this field in two nearby countries - the Czech Republic and Austria is compared. The health status of the population and the health care bases in both countries are on a high level, and the Czech situation is approaching the somewhat better situation in Austria. The main problem in the both countries is the lack of financial resources for covering the increasing needs in health care services and medicaments. Therefore, the new ways how to balance the deficit of the system both on the revenue and expenditure sides are to be found. The reforms of the system should serve this goal. From the point of view of financial sources for health care a similar model is used in Austria and the Czech Republic, some modifications of it result from different historical development and from different economical level. These modifications and differences, together with the role of the state, insurance funds and direct payments of the population, are described in this paper. The causes of discrepancies between sources of finance and expenditures on the health care are discussed. Reforming the health care system is a long-term task. From this point of view the Austrian reform measures were prepared very well, with the needed advance before introducing them and it can serve as an example for preparation of the Czech reform. Nevertheless, many questions how to improve the financing of the health care for the benefit of patients remain still without answer and they are the matter of further research and discussions in many European countries.

According to Abraham Maslow's motivational theory, human action is motivated by five levels of human needs. The model introduced in this paper exploits Maslow's theory to explain migration flows between regions. In the model, movement from one region to another influences migrant utility in three ways: through change in wage owing to different regional wage levels, through changes in utility connected with a migrant's safety needs, and through disarrangement of a migrant's social network. When safety and social needs are added to the model, equilibria arise in which wage differentials between regions persist.