Spatial diversification of social benefits in Poland

The paper investigates the spatiotemporal distribution of advancements in social assistance, focusing on child benefits support in Polish counties from 2013 to 2023. The analysis is based on data acquired from the database of Statistics Poland (the Central Statistical Office of Poland). The condition of families was assessed using the Multiplicative Indicator of Poverty Intensity (MIPI), which helped identify locations of high and low-intensity phenomena. Spatial dependence testing techniques, such as Moran’s global and local autocorrelation measures, were applied to identify spatial clustering. This led to an analysis of the convergence of spatial distributions using the Hellinger distance by time and administrative division. Finally, an attempt was made to establish a spatial association between the situation of Polish families and local labour markets and wage levels by applying Florence’s location coefficient. ...