At the European level and in most EU member states, higher employment levels are seen as key to better poverty outcomes. What can we expect the actual impact to be, however? Up until now shift-share analysis has been used to estimate the impact of rising employment on relative income poverty. This method has serious limitations. We propose a more sophisticated simulation model that builds on regression-based estimates of employment probabilities and wages. We use this model to estimate the impact on relative income poverty of moving towards the Europe 2020 target of 75 percent of the working-age population in work. Two sensitivity checks are included: giving priority in job allocation to jobless households and imputing low instead of estimated wages. This article shows that employment growth does not necessarily result in lower relative poverty shares, a result that is largely consistent with observed outcomes over the past decade.

There is a growing interest for the use of spiral welded pipes in strain based design related applications. Since the influence of the spiral weld on the plastic behaviour of the pipe is not yet fully understood, further research on this topic is required. An important aspect of this plastic behaviour is the effect of mixed mode loading on weld defects located in the helical weld. This paper elaborates on the first experimental trials to evaluate ductile tearing by means of single edge notched tensile specimen (SENT) testing with slanted notches. Tests were performed on two SENT specimens, one with a slanted notch and another with a straight notch in order to investigate the influence of mixed mode loading. The crack mouth opening displacement and crack extension were determined experimentally by means of digital image correlation and potential drop measurements respectively. The crack extension and the potential drop measurements were related by means of finite element simulations.Keywords: Spiral Linepipe; Strain Based Design; SENT specimen; Finite Element Analysis INTRODUCTIONDue to the ever increasing demand for energy, more and more oil and gas pipelines are being installed to extract fossil fuels from harsh natural environments. These pipelines might have to withstand large plastic deformation as a result of for example discontinuous permafrost or seismic activity [1]. Consequently, the pipe axial straining capacity becomes equally important as the pipe hoop strength necessary for pressure containment. To take this into account, a strain based design approach should be applied. Such a design limits the allowable imposed axial strain to a fraction of the strain capacity. At the moment, strain based design for spiral welded pipes is not as well documented as is the case for UOE pipes. Due to the spiral weld and different anisotropic material response, the behaviour of spiral welded pipes will differ from that of UOE pipes. The use of spiral welded pipes could potentially lead to a project cost reduction of 5-15% compared to UOE pipes, which makes them attractive for industrial use. [4,9]. Also, it has been shown that the fatigue resistance and fracture arrest properties are at least equivalent to those of UOE pipes [10,11].This work is situated within the framework of a research project focusing on the tensile strain capacity of spirally welded pipes with seam weld defects. The aim of this work is to develop a combined numericalexperimental methodology to evaluate the tearing resistance of notches having a slanted orientation with respect to the loading direction. This leads to mixed mode loading condition as discussed in section 2. Because it is known that the constraint of Single Edge Notch Tension (SENT) specimens resembles this of full pipes [12,13], this geometry has been selected as key element of the methodology. Specimen dimensions, notch orientation and advanced instrumentation are discussed in section 3. Finite element analyses discussed in section 4 are used to relate potential drop mea...

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