Klaipėdos universitetas

One of the most important aspects influencing the quality of life is education. The paper includes the research results from an analysis of how the level of education affects quality of life, and the development of different initiatives and values. An analysis of scientific literature is performed, with a more detailed analysis of data from Latvia, taking into account the level of household income and satisfaction with life. Research methods applied: analysis of scientific findings, analysis of time-series on several indicators of development related to different education indicators, and income indicators depending on educational level, with a calculation of income confidence interval with a probability of 0.95 for households with different educational levels. Data used in the research: data from databases of the Official Statistics Portal of the Republic of Latvia, Household Finance and Consumption Survey. The research results indicate that households in Latvia with a higher education have a significantly higher income than households with primary or no education.

The study presents alternative measures for measuring the welfare of a country in the context of identifying relationships generated by the impact of changes in the income level, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), related to other welfare, measured by the Happy Planet Index (HPI). The analysis was conducted in Romania, during the period from 2012 to 2016. The research methodology involves simple linear regression and welfare descriptive variables such as GDP, GDP/capita, HPI and its subcomponents’ indicators, namely life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint. Identification of aspects that have an impact on the welfare of citizens allows to compare levels of wellbeing experienced worldwide and to identify the main areas at the national level on which improvements can be made. The results indicate that, although there is no correlation between GDP and HPI, GDP/capita has great influence on both life satisfaction and life expectancy. Also, GDP has influence on the ecological footprint. Given these considerations, the main conclusion of the research is that, although the level of welfare, quantified using GDP, changes positively, this change is due to the increased life expectancy, life satisfaction, reduced ecological footprint rather than to changes in income levels.

Welfare in its narrow understanding means the state’s material help given to the members of society. It also may be understood as the whole of the state’s activities aimed at multi-level support for various social groups. The aim of this paper is to show different elements of material help given to society by the state which help society to meet social security. Also, the findings based on some examples of the current Polish history show how this kind of state’s support may help politicians to gain success in elections. The author argues that the same reality, i.e., social help, may be used for people’s welfare, however, it may be also used to obtain political goals. It must be noticed that using welfare for political goals often happens the situation when electoral promises are not necessary implemented after a particular party wins the election. To achieve the main purpose of this research the method of analysis was applied. Today, welfare can be used in both ways – as a form of ensuring the social safety of society and as an effective and successful tool in election campaigns.