Argumenta Oeconomica, 2019, Nr 1 (42), s. 55-80

The amount of income earned, wealth and position in the labor market are determined by many factors. Numerous analyses indicate that these characteristics depend on, among others, gender, education, type of work and place of residence. The indicated factors, however, describe individual areas, which significantly hinders the comprehensive analysis and identification of the real determinants. In this context, the purpose of our analysis is to identify and characterize the concept of economic resourcefulness as a key factor conditioning people’s effectiveness functioning on the market, managing the resources they possess, and having the ability to guarantee the economic security of their families. The empirical part of the analysis was carried out on data from a dedicated study conducted in Poland in 2016. Due to the design of the sample, the data from the study will identify the level of resourcefulness for groups of people that differ with respect to the respondents’ age and experiences related to Poland’s political transformation.

The article proposes a method to assess the level of economic security, based on the analysis of scenarios of future events. These scenarios cover realistically possible combinations of future events, both positive and negative, allowing for an assessment of their financial implications. The empirical part of the paper contains the results of applying the proposed method to the Polish data. In the scenarios considered, changes in the situation of individuals in the labour market and changes in the level of income and expenditure are taken into account.

With a possible decline in public pension benefits, private savings will become critical for maintaining desired living standards, yet most people undersave. We focus on one of the possible explanations for this: trust in the state. Using data from a dedicated survey and applying structural equation modeling, this study demonstrates that Polish citizens cherish the unconditional, albeit subconscious, belief in the state as a potential rescuer of last resort in life-threatening situations. This trust plays an essential role in people’s propensity to save for the future. We discuss potential explanations of this phenomenon and its consequences for social policymaking.

Economic resourcefulness indirectly affects many aspects related to the functioning of individuals on the market. One of the crucial areas is making financial decisions related to the allocation of financial surpluses and taking loans. The analysis carried out based on a dedicated study aims 1) to identify various aspects of the processes of collecting savings and borrowing in Poland and 2) to assess whether these processes are related to economic resourcefulness. The obtained results indicate the significance of economic resourcefulness for the majority of identified aspects of saving and borrowing, but at the same time, they show the specificity of these aspects. Resourcefulness, oriented at gaining a satisfactory financial situation and economic stability does not necessarily lead to strengthening individual retirement saving. It could be interpreted as a kind of trade-off between strategies build upon focusing on achieving well-being in the short (medium) and a long time horizon.

We develop a methodology for measuring the scale of the unregistered wages paid to staff by employers. We show that the differences in earnings distribution between public‐ and private‐sector employees are not reflected in the distribution of expenditure. Assuming that public‐sector employees do not receive unreported income, this points to undisclosed income in the private sector. After showing that the distribution of income from non‐wage sources does not systematically depend on the sector, we argue that the differences may be attributed to envelope wages. We estimate that 10%–11% of employees in Poland receive envelope wages, which account for around 5% of total earnings.