Redistribution is one of the principal mechanisms through which countries secure low income inequality. Maintaining moderately high wage levels at the low end of the distribution may be increasingly difficult and perhaps even counterproductive from an egalitarian perspective. If so,...

In this paper social assistance developments are analyzed in a large number of EU member states, including European transition countries and the new democracies of southern Europe. The empirical analysis is based on the unique and recently established SaMip Dataset, which provides social...

This report analyzes the Philippines’ ambitious response to the economic risks and dislocation wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020: a set of targeted income support measures that intended to cover unprecedented shares of the population. It...

This essay summarises the broad contours and key characteristics of the Indian government’s social policy response to the global Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing nationwide lockdown. The principal strategy of the Indian government was to implement a large and at times bewildering array of...

This report discusses Indonesia’s social policy response to Covid-19 as well as the public’s response to this policy response. It finds that the Indonesian social policy response to the pandemic was mainly through reallocations within the government budget to finance targeted social safety...

This report summarises and analyses Kenya’s social policy response to Covid-19. Following the global outbreak of the pandemic, Kenya’s parliament passed several economic and social laws. Tax law amendments aimed to cushion citizens and businesses from the negative effects of the disease by...

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has utilized and pragmatically adjusted existing welfare institutions to ensure social and economic stability. This report describes the Chinese social policy responses in 2020 to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus crisis and...

Zimbabwe’s social policy response to Covid-19 unfolded in a context of enduring socioeconomic and political crises. Its main instruments were temporary food relief and cash transfers, though it also included healthcare measures, an economic stimulus package, pension benefits, and “cushioning...

The new coronavirus has turned out to be an unprecedented and unexpected crisis which has led to rethinking healthcare, public safety and socio-economic policies. Severe problems have manifested themselves in these areas in Georgia, a developing country with below average income levels and high...