Non take-up of means-tested benefits among pensioners is of longstanding concern. It will assume increased importance from 2003 with the introduction of the new means-tested Pension Credit, which will subsume Income Support and to which about half of all pensioners are expected to be entitled....

Non-take-up of means-tested benefits among pensioners is of long-standing concern. It has assumed increased importance from October 2003 with the introduction of the new means-tested pension credit to which about half of pensioners are expected to be entitled. We use Family Resources Survey data...

Microsimulation models are commonly used to examine the distributional impact of reforms of the means-tested benefit system. Take-up behaviour is related to the level of entitlement, so reform may induce changes in take-up. We develop a stochastic simulation method and apply it to a probit model...

We investigate the finite sample performance of a Lagrange Multiplier specification test for competing-risks duration models developed by Pudney and Thomas (1995). In their empirical work they employ a simple form of the test based on the Outer Product of the Gradient approximation (OPG) to the...

This paper explores some of the possible uses of household survey data for the analysis of the process of economic transition. It is argued that such data are particularly valuable for work on the distributional effects of transition, using simulation techniques of various kinds. Some examples...

Poverty and fertility are two important and closely related aspects of welfare. In this paper we use unique longitudinal data sources to study the relationship between poverty and fertility at household level in Albania, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Vietnam. These countries differ greatly in their...

We estimate parametric and semi-parametric binary choice models of benefit take-up by British pensioners and develop methods, based on the compensating variation, of inferring the cash-equivalent value of disutility arising from stigma or complexity of the claims process, taking account of the...