Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s

Förster, Michael; d’Ercole, Marco Mira

doi:10.2139/ssrn.671783

Cited by 143 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In countries like Ireland and Spain, which experienced very rapid income growth, poverty in 1995 measured this way was one-sixth the level of 10 years earlier. The US poverty rate on this basis shows a decline from the mid-1980s up until 2000, though smaller than the average decline of the 15 OECD countries included in the study (Förster and d'Ercole, 2005). In a similar vein, it is striking that some countries where relative income poverty remained quite stable or even rose have seen very marked falls in levels of material deprivation, notably some of the lower-income countries joining the EU from 2004 as the common indicators of material deprivation now also produced by Eurostat serve to demonstrate.…”

Section: Key Patterns and Trendsmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…A very wide variety of studies of poverty in individual countries, both descriptive and econometric, find that those in work are much less likely to be poor than the unemployed or working-age inactive. Cross-country differences in labour market performance and structure then seem a natural starting point in seeking to understand cross-country variation in poverty rates (Burniaux et al, 1998;Förster and D'Ercole, 2005). The poverty rate among the working-age population varies greatly across OECD countries and is indeed the main contributor to overall poverty headcounts (see for example OECD, 2009).…”

Section: The Labour Market Education and Active Labour Market Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Welfare State and Antipoverty Policy in Rich Countries

Marx

Nolan²,

Olivera

2015

Handbook of Income Distribution

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Section: Key Patterns and Trendsmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: The Labour Market Education and Active Labour Market Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Welfare State and Antipoverty Policy in Rich Countries

Marx

Nolan²,

Olivera

2015

Handbook of Income Distribution

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“…It should be noted that this result is highly sensitive for the purchasing power parity rates used to convert the US poverty lines to country specific thresholds of EU15. 6 Among others, see Atkinson (1987 and2003), Hagenaars andDe Vos (1987), Förster (1993), Atkinson et al (1995), Behrendt (2000), Smeeding (1997 and2000), Smeeding et al (2000), Marcus and Danziger (2000), Atkinson and Brandolini (2001), Caminada and Goudswaard (2001), Förster and Pearson (2002), Smeeding (2005), Guio (2005), Förster and Mira d'Ercole (2005), OECD (2008) and (other) papers listed in our reference section using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. Recent comprehensive reviews on methodological assumptions underlying international levels and trends in inequality are found in Brandolini andSmeeding (2007 and.…”

Section: Measuring Social Effortmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…9 See for a critical survey of efforts to measure budget incidence by Smolensky et al (1987). 10 Among others, see Behrendt (2002), Smeeding (2005), Förster and Pearson (2002), Guio (2005) and Förster and Mira d'Ercole (2005).…”

Section: Measuring the Anti Poverty Effects Of Taxes And Social Transmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Expenditure and Poverty Reduction in the Eu15 and Other OECD Countries

Caminada¹,

Goudswaard²

2009

SSRN Journal

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The European Union coordinates and encourages Member State actions to combat poverty, and to reform their social protection systems on the basis of policy exchanges and mutual learning ('best practices'). Some EU countries are more effective in poverty reduction than others. What can explain these variations in effectiveness? This paper analyzes the effectiveness of social transfers in alleviating poverty. We focus on EU15 countries, but also include other OECD countries in our analysis. We compare poverty rates at the levels of market and disposable incomes, that is before and after transfers, in order to analyze the effect of tax and transfer policies in reducing poverty, i.e. to determine the target efficiency of social transfers. We perform several tests with the most recent data (LIS, OECD, SOCX, and Eurostat: ECHP/EU-SILC). Finally, we perform several partial analyses by disaggregating poverty rates to socioeconomic and demographic conditions in order to investigate to what extent variations at the social program level (such as old age pensions, child benefits) affect the measured effectiveness of the welfare state in alleviating poverty. Empirical results draw heavily on how pensions are treated -as primary income or as transfer. We find a strong relationship between levels of social spending and antipoverty effects of social transfers and taxes across EU15 countries. Social spending seems to be an important determinant of a country's poverty outcome, especially among the elderly, when pensions are considered as transfers. Our analysis highlights some cross-country differences in targeting of social expenditures on poverty alleviation in EU15 and non-EU15 countries around 2005. We introduce an indicator of Public Policy Effectiveness on Poverty Alleviation across countries. Each percentage point of social expenditure alleviates poverty in both EU15 and non-EU15 countries by .7 percentage points on average. Relatively high scores in EU15 countries are found for Ireland and Scandinavian countries, while Italy, Greece and Spain score lowest. Outside Europe the poorest scores are reported for Korea and the USA. Country ranking appears to be rather stable over time when outcomes for 1995 and 2005 are compared, although some of our results may be sensitive to cyclical factors. Finally, we analyzed poverty among vulnerable age groups. Our results show that family programs and child support alleviate poverty among children to a large extent, especially in non-EU15 countries. For public and private old age pension and survivors schemes we find no effect on poverty in case pensions are considered as transfers (both in EU15 and non-EU15 countries). However, this picture changes completely when pensions are counted as transfers. In that case the poverty rate among elderly in EU15 falls from 90 to 21 percent through taxes and social transfers! JEL-codes: H53, H55, I32

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The Changing Socio‐Demographic Composition of Poverty in Australia: 1982 to 2004

Wilkins¹

2007

Aust J Social Issues

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The extent of income poverty and its socio-demographic composition are examined using all ABS income surveys conducted over the period 1982 to 2004. There has been some increase in the proportion of the population in poverty, particularly since 1997, but of more note are the substantial changes in the socio-demographic composition of those in poverty. Compared with the start of the sample period, persons in poverty at the end of the period were much more likely to be older, in families without dependent children, holding post-school qualifications and/or foreign-born. In part, these changes reflect broader changes in the composition of the population. However, changes in the risks of poverty associated with different characteristics have also produced large changes in the composition of the poor, and have in some cases counteracted or reversed effects of demographic change. Specifically, the risk of poverty has increased for the elderly, non-dependent youth, single people, foreign-born persons and those without post-school qualifications, and it has decreased for sole parent families and residents of Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

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Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s

Cited by 143 publications

References 17 publications

The Welfare State and Antipoverty Policy in Rich Countries

The Welfare State and Antipoverty Policy in Rich Countries

Social Expenditure and Poverty Reduction in the Eu15 and Other OECD Countries

The Changing Socio‐Demographic Composition of Poverty in Australia: 1982 to 2004

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