Decent Incomes for All

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

This book aims to shed new light on recent poverty trends in the European Union, responses by European welfare states, and how progress can be made to realize a decent income for all. The text analyzes the effect of social and fiscal policies before, during, and after the recent economic crisis and studies the impact of alternative policy packages on poverty and inequality. Furthermore, the discussion elaborates on how social investment and local initiatives of social innovation can contribute to tackling poverty. There are reasons for both optimism and pessimism. The book argues that there are indeed structural constraints on the increase of the social floor and difficult trade-offs involved in reconciling work and poverty reduction. Differences across countries are, however, very large. This suggests that there is ample room for maneuver for policy makers. There is also no evidence of a universal deterioration of social protection. Nonetheless, we observe a persistent and almost general inadequacy of minimum income protection for jobless households, pointing to structural challenges for realizing a decent minimum income for all. To overcome these challenges, unavoidably, efforts to raise the wage and the social floor should be increased significantly almost everywhere. The book highlights that to do so, country-specific policy mixes should be designed.

A glass ceiling on poverty reduction? An empirical investigation into the structural constraints on minimum income protections

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bea Cantillon ◽  
Zachary Parolin ◽  
Diego Collado
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Employment Growth ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Net Income ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Downward Pressure ◽  
Wage Earners ◽  
Household Incomes

This article investigates whether declining or sluggish growth in earnings for low-wage workers contributes to declining levels of minimum income protections. Starting from the observation of lacklustre growth in minimum income protections, this article introduces a framework to conceptualize the tensions facing modern welfare states in their attempt to (1) provide poverty-alleviating minimum incomes, (2) achieve employment growth and (3) keep spending levels in check. We argue that, due to downward pressure on low gross wages compared to median household incomes, it has become more difficult to balance each of those three objectives. Estimation results from country-year panel data suggest that declines in minimum wages (or low gross wages) are associated with declines in minimum income protections for the jobless. When growth in minimum income protections does exceed growth in low gross wages, we find that welfare states also increase gross-to-net effort to subsidize the net income of low-wage earners. We argue that these findings point towards a ‘structural inadequacy’ around minimum income protections for the jobless.

Conclusion: local social innovation and welfare reform

2019 ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Stijn Oosterlynck ◽  
Andreas Novy ◽  
Yuri Kazepov
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

In this chapter, we draw a range of overall conclusions from our case-study based investigation of how local social innovations operate as vehicles of welfare reform. We reflect on the impact of the increased interest of policy-makers in social innovation and on the relationship between social innovation and other social policy paradigms, notably the established paradigm of social protection and its main contender, the social investment paradigm. We also discuss our main findings with regard to the mix of actors, resources and instruments supporting localized social innovations, the multi-scalar nature social innovations, its empowerment dimension and relationship with knowledge. Finally, we look at the consolidation of social innovation in specific welfare-institutional contexts.

scholarly journals European integration and social convergence: A qualitative appraisal

2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Attia ◽  
Valérie Bérenger
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Maastricht Treaty ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

Although with the Maastricht Treaty, European construction took a remarkable step forward, the robust pillar of the single currency started to shake the other one: the social welfare systems. The main goal of this contribution is to study the evolution of Social Protection in Europe by questioning the existence of a convergence between the different social welfare systems and the impact of the Treaty of Maastricht on this process. The evolution of the social protection concept in Europe, the reforms implemented in the most important domains of social protection: pensions, health and employment are analyzed. A common philosophy clearly appears. The welfare State is receding, calling more and more upon market mechanisms. Furthermore, the traditional binary typology is changing and countries are becoming more similar in their financing methods. We can thus say that a process of social convergence seems well and truly underway in the European Union.

scholarly journals Which Roads (if any) to Social Investment? The Recalibration of EU Welfare States at the Crisis Crossroads (2000–2014)

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFANO RONCHI
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Lisbon Strategy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fiscal Space ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Expenditure

AbstractThe social investment approach has been advocated as a blueprint for recasting European welfare states since the years of the Lisbon Strategy. After the Euro crisis squeezed the fiscal space available for welfare recalibration, the question has been raised as to whether social investment could withstand the economic turmoil. Relying on a new welfare expenditure dataset constructed from various Eurostat sources, this article looks at the budgetary recalibration of 27 EU welfare states from the launch of the Lisbon Strategy to the aftermath of the Euro crisis (2000 to 2014). It compares the financial efforts that governments have put into social investment- and social protection-oriented policies, highlighting the different trajectories taken by EU welfare states at the crisis crossroads. Four scenarios for welfare recalibration are put forward, based on the social investment perspective and its critiques. The results show that the overall progress made by social investment in welfare budgets since 2000 came to a halt with the outbreak of the crisis. Bleaker scenarios materialised, whereas EU welfare states pursued retrenchment rather than investment, or had to face harsher budgetary trade-offs, expanding social investment to the detriment of social protection.

scholarly journals Two Decades of Change in Europe: The Emergence of the Social Investment State

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEES VAN KERSBERGEN ◽  
ANTON HEMERIJCK
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Policy Mix ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
The Social

AbstractSince the late 1970s, the developed welfare states of the European Union have been recasting the policy mix on which their systems of social protection were built. They have adopted a new policy orthodoxy that could be summarised as the ‘social investment strategy’. Here we trace its origins and major developments. The shift is characterised by a move away from passive transfers and towards the maximalisation of employability and employment, but there are significant national distinctions and regime specific trajectories. We discuss some caveats, focusing on the question whether the new policy paradigm has been established at the expense of social policies that mitigate poverty and inequality.

Regional Disparities of the Social Innovation Potential in the Visegrad Countries: Causes and Consequences

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
György Kocziszky ◽  
Dóra Szendi
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Technical Innovation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Culture ◽  
Complex Character ◽  
Innovation Potential ◽  
The Social ◽  
Territorial Disparities ◽  
Active Contribution ◽  
Visegrád Countries

Abstract The international literature is paying significant and increasing attention to the analysis of the regions’ innovation potential, and its active contribution to economic growth and competitiveness. Beside the classical, technical innovation, also the social innovation is getting even more emphasis. It can solve as alternative basically in the case of the peripheral territories. The convergence of peripheries is a stressed priority in the European Union. The territorial disparities are resulting in significant social and political problems also in the case of the Visegrad countries’ regions. The authors in their research represent a possible method for the measurement of regional (NUTS-2) level social innovation potential on the example of the Visegrad countries, and they also analyse the causes and consequences of disparities. The applied complex social innovation index can be calculated as a result of three pillars (economic, social, culture and attitude), and several components. As a result of the created patterns can be concluded that compared to the economic indicators, the disadvantage of the peripheries is not so significant in the case of the social innovation index, because of the complex character of the index. In the second part of the research, the authors analyse and evaluate also the methods, which can be adequate for increasing the social innovation potential.

THE IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN UKRAINE

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyudmyla Mishchenko ◽  
◽  
Dmytro Mishchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Infrastructural Support ◽  
The Impact

The actualization of the results of financial decentralization in Ukraine as part of the reform of decentralization of power and the development of proposals for its improvement is explained by the fact that a clear division of functions, powers and financial resources between national and regional levels is the basis for the well-being of our citizens. opportunities for its sustainable socio- economic development on a democratic basis. It is noted that financial decentralization is a process of giving authority to mobilize revenues and expenditures of local governments in order to increase the effectiveness of the implementation of these powers and better management of community budgets. It is established that unlike traditional entrepreneurship, which focuses on profit generation, the purpose of social entrepreneurship is to create and accumulate social capital. Abroad, social enterprises operate successfully in the fields of education, the environment, human rights, poverty reduction and health care, and their development and dissemination is one way to improve the living conditions of citizens. A similar mission is entrusted to local governments, which allows us to consider the revival of social entrepreneurship as an important element in improving self-government policy. It is determined that in modern conditions social entrepreneurship is one of the tools to ensure the ability of the local community to provide its members with an appropriate level of education, culture, health, housing and communal services, social protection, etc., as well as plan and implement programs efficient use of available natural and human resources, investment and infrastructural support of territorial communities. Due to financial decentralization, local governments have received additional resources that can be used to create economic incentives to promote social entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized businesses at the community level.

Party-Political and Socio-Economic Сonsequences of Elections to the German Bundestag

2021 ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
V.B. Belov
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
Angela Merkel ◽  
The Face ◽  
German Bundestag ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Further Development

The article examines the results of the last Bundestag elections. They marked the end of the Angela Merkel era and reflected the continuation of difficult party-political and socio-economic processes in the informal leader of the European Union. The main attention of the research focuses on the peculiarities of the election campaign of the leading parties and of the search for ways of further development of Germany in the face of urgent economic and political challenges. These challenges include the impact of the coronavirus crisis, the impact of the energy and digital transition to a climate-neutral economy, and the complex international situation. Based on original sources, the author analyzes the causes of the SPD victory and the CDU/CSU bloc defeat, the results of the negotiations of the Social Democrats with the Greens and Liberals, the content of the coalition agreement from the point of view of the prospects for the development of domestic and foreign policy and the economy of Russia's main partner in the west of the Eurasian continent. The conclusion is made about the absence of breakthrough ideas, the consistent continuation of the course started by the previous government for a carbon-free economy and the strengthening of the role of Germany in Europe and the world. For this course, conflicts and problems in achieving the set goals will be immanent due to the compromising nature of the coalition agreements.

scholarly journals Exploring the Road to Agricultural Sustainability by Assessing the EU Debt Influencing Factors

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2465
Author(s):  
Laura Brad ◽  
Gabriel Popescu ◽  
Alina Zaharia ◽  
Maria Claudia Diaconeasa ◽  
Daniela Mihai
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Fixed Costs ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Total Debt ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Periodic Analysis ◽  
The Impact

The importance of agricultural financing in ensuring food security and safety, jobs, poverty reduction, economic growth and more recently, climate change mitigation, natural resource conservation and sustainable development imposes periodic analysis of the factors which might influence the farmers’ financial situation, in order to improve it. One way of assessing this is to analyze the agricultural debt. In this context, based on previous models, the paper aims to assess the impact of specific factors on the agricultural debt level in the European Union during 2008–2015, as these should be considered in future common agriculture policies as well as in achieving sustainable agriculture. The research was conducted based on econometric techniques, by applying panel models in the Eviews 7.0 software-64 bit version. More than 20 variables were considered in the analysis. Some of the findings suggest that an increase in subsidies as well as the share of cash flow in the total existing capital would determine considerable reductions of the total debt. Decoupled subsidies seem to have a higher impact than coupled subsidies on short term debt, while its value is between the one found for coupled subsidies in the case of long term debt. Large farms/companies, to which decoupled payments are granted, have higher debts on long run and on total debt. The same units, to which coupled subsidies were granted, have smaller short-term debt. In contrast, the increases of labor costs, fixed costs, and crop/livestock costs lead to an increase in the total debt, since the farms require additional financial resources to cover the expanded costs. Also, the results suggest that short-term debts are mainly formed of long-term loans that reached maturity. In this case, the authors support the idea of differentiated financing programs for the agricultural activities because of their peculiarities and reinforced by the need to turn the intensive agriculture into a sustainable and plentiful one.

scholarly journals Assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poverty of households

2021 ◽  
Vol 11/1 (-) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Olena POSHYVALOVA
Keyword(s):  
Economic Impact ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Exogenous Shocks ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Economies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Information Basis

Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused grave and severe losses in many of the economies across the globe. The impact and the duration of the economic crisis occurring due to the pandemic among certain households is difficult to anticipate since the indeterminacy is being defined through the duration of the crisis and costs for the recovery of the economy. The purpose of the paper is to study theoretical aspects related to the assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poverty of households. Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study are modern theories, concepts, hypotheses. Comparative analysis is used. The methodological and information basis of the work are scientific works, materials of periodicals, information resources. Results. The paper incorporates a content analysis of studies focusing on the economic impact of the COVID-19 on the development of national economies. The majority of studies assess economic implications of the COVID-19 however they are concentrated on the macroeconomic and financial impact of the Corona Crisis. The impact on national economies is subsequently reduced to the microlevel, specifically the social and economic impact on individuals. Nonetheless, there is a need for a microanalysis which may better describe the interrelation between sectors and countries (the effect of macroeconomic aggregate indicators) and supplement the macroanalysis, providing more relevant evaluations of the impact of the distribution of income, outline the authorities of households, the role of people's savings, determine the resilience of households. The work establishes main assumptions and restrictions of formulating the model of impact of social and economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poverty of households Conclusion. Taking into consideration the distribution of incomes for various sectors, the proposed model allows to ensure the assessment of losses in the consumption of households, savings depletion and time for their recovery. It has been proven that without the social protection of the population the Corona Crisis will lead to a massive economic shock for the national economy. Prospects of further studies lie in the assessment of the impact of indirect macro-level factors, role of indeterminacy in the decision-making of households and implications in case of numerous waves of social crisis as well as the possible effect in the condition of concurrent exogenous shocks.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document