In the microsimulation literature, it is still uncommon to test the statistical significance of results. In this note we argue that this situation is both undesirable and unnecessary. Provided the parameters used in the microsimulation are exogenous, as is often the case in static...

This paper uses data from the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions 2005-2010 to examine the relationship between incomes and people’s living arrangements, both at the aggregate level (that is, how living arrangements vary with GDP) and at the level of individual behaviour, within...

European welfare states are under considerable stress. On the one hand, the recession has caused unemployment to rise and household incomes to fall, which both raise the demand for social protection. On the other hand, austerity policies and programme reforms affect the capacity of welfare...

This paper surveys the literature on localized socially innovative policies and actions aimed at overcoming poverty and social exclusion. The authors show how these local forms of social innovation emerged in the late 1970s against the backdrop of the crisis and transformation of the Western...

The employment rates of non-EU immigrants compared to natives in Belgium continue to be low. In this chapter we examine whether differences in educational attainments offer an adequate explanation for these persisting labour market disadvantages. We decompose the gap in labour market outcomes...

This paper examines the extent to which tax and benefit policy changes introduced in the period 2001-11 had a poverty- or inequality-reducing effect. We assess whether the period was indeed a “missed opportunity” for policy changes to make a difference to poverty reduction since the Lisbon...

In European poverty research, poverty is usually measured with a poverty line defined as a percentage of the national median income. However, for grasping trends in social cohesion in the European Union (EU), and identifying options and pitfalls for social policy initiatives at the EU level,...

This paper analyses the effects of the inclusion of past experiences in measuring current material deprivation. The method followed generalises the recent proposal of Bossert, Chakravarty, Ceriani and D’Ambrosio (2013) by adapting the class of indices on the measurement of poverty over time of...

Recently the debate on the existence of a homogeneous East Asian welfare regime gained prominence because the region is experiencing changes in the fundamentals of its welfare system. Although the majority of the literature builds upon the assumption that there is indeed a fourth welfare type in...

Over the last two decades, the number of individuals entitled to work incapacity (WI) benefits increased strongly in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. The caseload has consequently increased but this has happened at a very different pace and to a very different degree. In order to...