This paper analyzes the relationship between public social expenditure and income inequality distribu tion in the 28 Member States of the European Union, throughout the period 2005-2014. We estimate dynamic panel models. The results show the existence of a negative correlation between public social expenditure as a whole and income inequality. Distinguishing among different expenditure concepts, the association between social expenditure and income inequality may be different in the emerging Member States as compared to the rest of the States. In the emerging States, spending on health and spending on social protection are negatively associated with income inequality, and in the rest of States, this redistributive function is carried out only by spending on social protection. Spending on education is not significantly related to income inequality in any group of studied countries.

For public policies purposes, the analysis of the relationship between income and subjective well-being is important. However, social comparisons in income as well as social contacts can be key determinants of subjective wellbeing. In order to test these hypotheses, we have studied the effect of different economic and non-economic factors on subjective well-being using the database of the German Socio-Economic Panel. The methodology used is a Probit adapted to Ordinary Least Square (POLS). The main results show that the effect of absolute income on subjective well-being is different depending on the variable of social comparison considered. In addition, the absolute income does not exert the greatest impact on subjective well-being, but social contacts and having a good health. These findings underscore the importance of analyzing the distributional effects of public expenditure programs, as well as studying the effects of public policies on non-economic factors that determine people's well-being and the effectiveness of those policies.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract