| Abstract [eng] |
Living standards and its evaluation is becoming more and more important topic in various areas. The most common criteria, that is GDP per capita, is not the only index that can be used to measure level of living in a country. In order to measure a level of living in a country, additional data and indexes are needed. Scientific literature points out that selection of indexes and classification of indexes into groups is an important goal of social sciences. The purpose of this master thesis is to analyze and evaluate methods of assessment of changes in the living standard and to execute a comparative assessment of living standard of European Union member countries. To achieve the purpose of this thesis, it was important to define similarities and differences between these terms: level of living, living standard and well-being. Also the main indicators of living standard and it‘s assessment methods have been reviewed. A multi-criteria decision method was chosen and applied, also a survey of experts was carried out in order to perform an assessment of living standard between European Union member countries. A total of 12 indicators were included in the research. When using all of these indicators, the results of a research are closely comparable with GDP per capita and HDI indices. Nevertheless, when the results of a survey are brought in and only 7 indicators that were favored by experts are used, a different ranking of countries is produced by also applying the multi-criteria decision making method. This proves that selection of indicators is crucial and different results can be produced by picking different sets of indicators. |
