This paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey as well as the Household Budget Survey to assess the impact of the fiscal system on poverty and inequality in Bulgaria. This paper presents...

This paper analyzes the distributional impact of the tax-benefit system in Bhutan. It makes two main contributions: first, this is the first substantive study of this kind in Bhutan, and second, due to limited information on incomes in the household survey, a consumption-based model is combined...

In the context of economic recovery and structural reforms to boost Serbia's living standards, understanding the impact of fiscal policy on inequality and poverty is key to inform policy choices. This paper's key research question is to analyze the redistributive effect of fiscal policy on...

This study provides a first attempt to contribute a large-scale assessment of whether crisis response as observed during the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a feasible blueprint for creating durable solutions across countries. Adopting a lens on fiscal contracts, it assesses highlevel parameters...

Large and persistent gaps in social protection coverage, comprehensiveness and adequacy are linked to many barriers, including high levels of informality, institutional fragmentation of the social protection system and significant financing gaps for social protection in a context of limited...

As policymakers gradually (re-)assess social protection systems in the wider context of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is becoming increasingly important to have clear information on country-level programmes. This Research Report examines the country's existing non-contributory (social...

In this paper, we aim to study the interrelationship between social spending, economic growth, and income inequality in developing countries from the year 1990 to 2013. We observed that all the categories of social spending produced a significant reduction in income inequality. Further, the...

This paper assesses the impact of financial crises on social spending and its components (healthcare, education, and social protection) on a panel of 108 countries for the years 1991-2019. An important novelty of this paper is that it tests for the distinct effects of different types of...

Poverty in Mexico was high before the COVID-19 pandemic and has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with significant variation across states. Education losses from the pandemic are likely to be large and worsen pre-existing disparities; unless mitigated soon, they could contribute to heightened...

The role of the state within the neoliberal system is discussed in the approaches developed for social expenditures. Accordingly, the question of whether the state should stand back or provide the support needed by individuals has shaped the literaturę on social expenditures. It is thought that...

Bangladesh's economy is growing at a healthy pace and macro conditions are strong. Progress in social outcomes in Bangladesh is inspiring other countries, but deep challenges persist as the pace of poverty reduction slows down. Bangladesh labor market is dominated by low-productivity and...

Nepal's recent transition to a federal state structure provides a historic juncture to realize the role that social protection can play in achieving the constitutional goals of equity, inclusion, and prosperity. The transition to a federal structure of governance and the promulgation of a new...

This paper assesses the performance of government spending on social protection programs in reducing poverty and inequality in Lesotho, applying benefit incidence and microsimulation methods to 2017-2018 household survey data. The paper investigates the distributional effects of actual spending...

We investigate the effect of extreme temperatures on mortality and emergency hospital admissions, and whether local social care allows to mitigate their adverse effects. We merge monthly administrative data on mortality and hospital discharge from Italian municipalities for the period 2001-2015...

Jährlich werden rund 54,9 Milliarden Euro für die Kinder- und Jugendhilfe (KJH) verausgabt (Stand 2018). Diese verteilen sich jedoch nicht homogen auf die Gemeinden in der Bundesrepublik, sondern je nach sozialen Herausforderungen. Dabei fehlt es an einer interkommunalen Vergleichbarkeit der...

The large increase in economic inequality and the dismantling of the welfare state in Western democracies has been connected to the rise of populist parties. If populist voting is explained by fear and labor market insecurity and if people care more about procedural fairness than inequality of...

Korpi and Palme (1998) famously suggested the existence of a Paradox of Redistribution:although programs targeted to the poor may be more redistributive per unit of expendi-ture, universal programs reduce distributive conflicts, leading to bigger, more egalitarian wel-fare states. However,...

We use a fiscal incidence model based on the South African 2014/15 Living Conditions Survey to simulate the poverty reduction impacts of a selection of medium-to-long-term social grant options with the goal of replacing the existing special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant upon its...

Social expenditure plays an important role in European Union (EU) countries. It improves the lives of citizens whose welfare is endangered due to poverty or illness. However, social expenditure represents a considerable share of the budgets of EU member states. Despite evident similarities in...

We document the short-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Brazilian labor market focusing on employment, wages and hours worked using the nationally representative household surveys PNAD-Continua and PNAD COVID. Sectors most susceptible to the shock because they are more...

To shed light on the possible scarring effects from Covid-19, this paper studies the economic effects of five past pandemics using local projections on a sample of fifty-five countries over 1990-2019. The findings reveal that pandemics have detrimental medium-term effects on output,...

The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has an ambitious long-term vision for the nation and its people, operationalized through the national development plans. A rapid increase in public spending financed through borrowing, due to lack of a concomitant increase in public revenue, meant a...

The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has an ambitious long-term vision for the nation and its people, operationalized through the national development plans. A rapid increase in public spending financed through borrowing, due to lack of a concomitant increase in public revenue, meant a...

Government transfers to older persons in Canada are one of the largest and fastest growing" components of the government budget. I provide an overview of the interaction between these" transfer programs and retirement behavior. I begin by documenting historical trends in labor force"...

In 2014, prior to the political transition of 2015 towards democracy, the government published the Myanmar National Social Protection Strategic Plan with the aim of supporting socio-economic development, and strengthening the resilience of vulnerable people against shocks and life cycle...

This study aims to investigate age-related differences in social spending preference in an Asian context, drawing on a random survey of more than 1,000 adults in Hong Kong in 2013. Contrary to conventional wisdom, older adults in Hong Kong do not exert a significant impact on the positive...