High and persistent unemployment has presented a major challenge for the welfare state from two directions. First, it has eroded the funding base and second, it has increased the demands on welfare programs because of the consequences for poverty and inequality resulting from high unemployment....

Do remittances and social assistance have different impacts on household expenditure patterns While two separate strands of literature have looked at how social assistance or remittances have been spent, few studies have compared them directly. Using data from a nationally representative...

Recent economic literature has advanced the notion that cognitive biases and behavioural barriers may be important influencers of uptake decisions in respect of public programs that are designed to help disadvantaged people. This paper provides the first evidence on the determinants of uptake of...

Recent economic literature has advanced the notion that cognitive biases and behavioural barriers may be important influencers of uptake decisions in respect of public programs that are designed to help disadvantaged people. This paper provides the first evidence on the determinants of uptake of...

Public services in all countries are related to the basic needs that people should satisfy in order to warranty a worthy quality of life. The water and sanitation services provision is one of these services. Through this study, the case of water and sanitation provision in Peru will be analyzed....

In this paper we argue that the Millennium Development Goals MDGs experience suggests that Global Social Governance GSG exists and that the MDGs have been an effective tool in creating a global accountability framework despite shortcomings mainly arising in the formulation process. The paper...

The European economy is currently in a slump, the worst since the 1930s. Although this is often seen as a consequence of the financial crisis that hit the capitalist world in 2007-8, we argue that many of the problems that Europe faces today have long-term roots to do with the fact that Europe...

We estimate the impact of food transfers on diet and consumption expenditures in food insecure households with HIV positive members on antiretroviral therapy. We use primary data collected from 199 beneficiary and 179 non-beneficiary households in Lusaka, Zambia. Propensity score matching...

Public services in all countries are related to the basic needs that people should satisfy in order to warranty a worthy quality of life. The water and sanitation services provision is one of these services. Through this study, the case of water and sanitation provision in Peru will be analyzed....

This is an introduction to the papers in this special issue on policy simulations discussing a variety of simulation models. Simulation modelling has become a powerful tool to analyse hypothetical and actual policy changes. This issue contains analyses based on both macro- and micro-level data....