TRENDS IN HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION INEQUALITIES IN SLOVAKIA: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

The article deals with consumption inequalities in Slovakia. Analysing household consumption behaviour is very important due to the existence of linkages between consumption and development on the labour market and it is also particularly important in regard to population ageing, as Slovakia belongs to the group of EU Member States moving from the youngest population at present to the oldest ones in the future. Through identifying expenditure elasticities by employing the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) in the analysis of nine groups of consumer goods and services we were able to define what low and high income households consider luxury goods and necessity goods. The results suggest that the development of income inequalities in Slovakia is not fully traced by consumption inequalities and that the financial and economic crisis has played an important role in determining consumption inequalities between low and high income households.