Höhne, Sylva – Godarová, Jana – Jahoda, Robert – Kuchařová, Věra – Víšek, Petr
Effect of child tax deduction and child allowance on socio-economic situation of families with dependent children and their reflection by parents
Prague: RILSA, 2019. 166 pp., ISBN 978-80-7416-353-1
Support for families with children through the tax-benefit system should be designed so as to strengthen the socio-economic situation of families and not to adversely affect the lives of individuals or families. The study is devoted both to the main benefit and tax support tools available for families with children (the child allowance and the child tax allowance) and the importance of state financial assistance and its various sub-components for families. The study monitors both the influence of this support on the income situation of families and its potential effect on the decision-making process of individuals with regard to parenting plans and on the motivation to work based on the example of the legalisation of work income. The assessment is based on the creation of theoretical models that are able to predict the redistribution effects of the tax-benefit system, as well as on the results of a sample survey of parents of dependent children that focused on their attitudes to state financial support.
The most numerous types of families as well as less common and specific family types were included in the analysis of the model comparison. The results indicated the decreasing importance of the child allowance, the change in the role of this allowance over time and the impact of its selective increase in 2018, all of which have been influenced significantly by the interconnection of social systems. Conversely, the results illustrate the increasing importance of tax support in family income. While the child tax deduction acts as a motivational element for legal employment in the labour market, the tax deduction available for the taxpayers with a low-earning spouse appears to be somewhat demotivating. Although financial support from the state is seen as important for parents, they also recognise the need for other forms of assistance.
only in Czech:
Šimíková, Ivana a kol.
Analysis of suitable approaches to the determination of ethnicity and collecting ethnically sensitive data in the Czech Republic
Prague: RILSA, 2019. 91 pp., ISBN 978-80-7416-364-7
The study explores the possibilities of collection of ethnic data related to the Roma minority in the context of the Czech Republic from theoretical, practical, and epistemological perspective. The study was realized on the basis of the Czech Ministry of Work and Social Affairs‘ assignment and it analyses various practices of collection of ethnic data in the member states of the EU and their relevance to the specific conditions in the Czech Republic. The study explores the issues of definition of a population based on ethnicity and ways of identification of this population’s members for the purposes of quantitative survey. The identification of ethnicity is conceptualized as epistemological rather than technical problem. The study identifies three approaches in identification of ethnicity and describes their relation to the epistemological aspects of the collection of ethnic data. It is essentialist approach, which conceptualizes ethnicity as an objective condition, that is to be found out; the constructivist approach, which conceptualizes ethnicity as a multidimensional and dynamic process; and the external identification, which emphasizes the ascribed aspects of ethnic identity. Further, the study analyses methodological dilemmas as well as advantages and disadvantages of the three presented approaches in the context of statistical survey and analysis. Finally, the study discuses ethical aspect of the collection of ethnic data. The attachments consist of three parts: conceptualization of the ethnicity from the perspective of social sciences, that follows the social constructivist paradigm; legislative analysis of the collection of ethnic data, that examine various aspects of ethnic data from the legal perspective; and an overview of European statistic survey focused on the collection of ethnic data since 2000.
only in Czech: