Abstract:

The article deals with the issue of the growing similarity of the level of disposable income in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the years 1996-2017. The studied countries have been associated within the Visegrad Group. At the beginning of the 1990s, these countries underwent a series of economic reforms necessary to transform from central planned to market economies. This made it possible to record systematic socio-economic development since the mid-1990s, which also translated into an increase in the level of disposable income of households. This process continues to this day. In the period under review two key events should be noted: the accession of the Visegrad Group countries to the European Union and the occurrence of the global financial crisis. The events had a significant impact on the growth of disposable income per capita in the period 2004-2008 and a slowdown in the years 2009-2012. The main objective of the study is to analyze changes in disposable income per capita in the Visegrad Group countries in the period 1996-2017 and to identify the convergence process of the level of disposable income. The implementation of the goal allowed to state that the level of disposable income in the examined countries was becoming more similar, which is undoubtedly the result of their mutual economic cooperation, globalization processes taking place and the countries belonging to the EU structures