Anti-Poverty Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-87
Author(s):  
Cathal O'Donoghue

This chapter discusses the development of a static microsimulation model for the purpose of undertaking an anti-poverty policy reform. Microsimulation models, which simulate the legislative detail of poverty-reduction instruments, can be used to make social-protection instruments more effective in this objective by helping to improve the targeting of these instruments. This chapter describes firstly the structure of the dataset required for microsimulation modelling. It then creates a theoretical understanding of the structure of social transfers, and of the concept of a hypothetical microsimulation model. Although the model developed in this chapter abstracts from the population complexity described in Chapter 1, it allows us in a simpler way to understand the targeting and structure of anti-poverty policies. Some of the issues that arise in creating a base dataset for a microsimulation model are discussed. As validation, debugging, and error checking are paramount in model development, the use of a hypothetical family model to use for validation purposes is introduced. We define some concepts used to calculate the poverty efficiency of a social-protection instrument. Finally, the chapter undertakes a simulation of the development of a means-tested benefit.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasa Miežienė ◽  
Sandra Krutulienė

AbstractAvailable studies indicate a strong negative correlation between poverty and social expenditures in EU countries. It means that the country’s at-risk-of-poverty rate tends to erode with increasing social expenditure. However, the studies have demonstrated that the impact of government spending on poverty may vary according to the sector of spending, how well it is targeted, and the way in which it is financed. Some countries manage to achieve a rather significant poverty rate reduction even with relatively low, in the context of other Member States, social expenditure (percentage of GDP). This suggests that in order to reduce poverty rates, it is important to consider not only the amount allocated to social spending, but also the areas the social transfers are channelled to. The article aims to analyse how the composition and the extent of social spending/transfers may affect poverty reduction in EU countries. The analysis showed that social protection transfers reduce the percentage of people at-risk-of-poverty in all countries, however, to a very different extent. Regression analysis demonstrated that social exclusion and family/children expenditure was found to be the most important predictor for a relative antipoverty effect of social transfers: even a small percentage increase in such expenditure allows quite a significant increase in the relative antipoverty effect of social transfers.


2018 ◽  
pp. 223-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Collado ◽  
Bea Cantillon ◽  
Karel Van den Bosch ◽  
Tim Goedemé ◽  
Dieter Vandelannoote

Available evidence suggests that social investment and employment strategies are important but not sufficient for poverty reduction. Thus, European Union countries must not only develop effective employment policies but also ensure adequate social protection. This would require increasing social transfers for working and nonworking households, while protecting work incentives. In this chapter, we show that this is not an inexpensive option. We calculate the hypothetical cost of closing the poverty gap while maintaining the existing average labor-market participation incentives at the bottom of the income distribution. We do so in three types of welfare regimes, namely those of Belgium, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Results show that this would require around two times the budget needed just to lift all disposable household incomes to the poverty threshold. The cost would obviously be lower in countries with smaller poverty gaps and with weaker participation incentives.


Author(s):  
Maria Klara Kuss ◽  
Franziska Gassmann ◽  
Firminus Mugumya

AbstractInclusive growth and development are essential for the sustainability of poverty reduction and growth. Social protection has been promoted as part of the inclusive growth and development agenda by emphasising the positive impacts of social transfers on people’s participation in economic processes. However, the focus on the positive economic impacts of social transfers has led to the neglect of concerns regarding inequality of opportunity. Taking the case of Uganda’s Senior Citizens Grant, this paper critically assesses how inclusive the impacts of social transfers are on economic processes. This is done by examining the extent to which local economic structures interplay with the impacts of the Grant. Based on a qualitative case study design, the analysis reveals that the scheme has unwittingly reinforced spatial patterns of economic exclusion and disadvantage. Recipients in remote areas are more likely to stay or fall back into poverty compared to people in integrated areas. For social transfers to contribute to inclusive growth and development for all, it will be vital to invest in complementary development interventions in economically disadvantaged areas.


Author(s):  
Lyudmyla Mishchenko ◽  
◽  
Dmytro Mishchenko ◽  

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.


GIS Business ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Sunita Kumari ◽  
Bino Paul G.D.

We explore emerging contexts of social entrepreneurship in India. Social entrepreneurship is emerging as an important option in poverty reduction and social change wherein organizing societal responses to scenarios like entrenched deprivation, cumulative disadvantages, long extant institutional lock-in, and vulnerabilities enmeshed in social stratification, hiatus emanating from segmentation of labour market and inadequate coverage of social protection form the core of strategies/collectives/organisation. In this paper, first, drawing cues from the literature, we outline basic typology of social entrepreneurship while delineating pivotal role technology and collaboration play in social entrepreneurship. Second, we provide a glimpse of not profit organisations in India, based on the secondary data. We juxtapose select patterns from the data on non profit organisations with human development. Third, we discuss select cases of social entrepreneurship that diverge in characteristics and contexts, in particular how these initiatives work towards poverty reduction and social development.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alhassan Abdul-Wakeel Karakara ◽  
Ernest Amoabeng Ortsin

Purpose Ghana has implemented different kinds of pro-poor program and policies since its independence to reduce poverty. The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is one of such program. LEAP is a social cash transfer program and its implementation has been under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection since 2008. It provides direct cash and health insurance coverage for extremely poor households across the country to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development. This paper examines the LEAP program in terms of how it has achieved its aim and the opportunities for improvement.Design/methodology/approach Primary data were obtained from interviews of 110 beneficiaries of the program. The study proposes a conceptual framework that links poverty reduction and social policies to assist researchers analyze pro-poor or social cash transfer program.Findings The findings show that the program is challenged with administrative bureaucracies, irregular inflow of funds, perceived political interferences, inconsistent implementation strategies and low value of the cash transfer (which results in little or no impact on consumption). However, the data also show that LEAP has positive impacts on nonconsumption spending like children's schooling. The program' exit strategy does not impact much on beneficiaries to allow them exit without the tendency of being poor.Practical implications This paper discussed the LEAP program as a social cash transfer to the poor in Ghana. The study constructed a conceptual framework to help researchers and practitioners analyze the implementation of pro-poor interventions. This conceptualization allows for cash transfer program to empower beneficiaries and exits them to allow for other beneficiaries to enroll, ensuring reduction in poverty over time. Generally, the beneficiaries have benefited from the LEAP in the areas of consumption, education and healthcare with few beneficiaries being able to accumulate some few assets. The LEAP program has no exit plan.Originality/value This study adds to literature by offering a conceptual framework to help researchers and policy makers in dealing with social assistance policies to the poor. The study also gave an insight into how pro-poor policy strategies could be crafted.


Author(s):  
Wulandari Wulandari ◽  
Pudji Muljono

One of the main problems of development that experienced by Indonesia at this time is the high number of poor people. In order to accelerate poverty reduction and the development of policy in the field of social protection for families very poor households, the government issued a policy that is Family Hope Program. Family Hope Program is a social assistance that realized by cash, education and health are addressed to very poor households particularly who has a 0-15 years old and pregnant mother/ postpartum. The purpose of this research is to identify the achievement of the Family Hope Program in Tedunan, Kedung district, Jepara regency. This research was conducted with a quantitative approach that is supported by qualitative data. The method used in this research is survey method with 40 respondent.Key words: family hope program , policy, povertyABSTRAKSalah satu masalah utama pembangunan yang dialami oleh Indonesia saat ini adalah tingginya jumlah penduduk miskin. Dalam rangka percepatan penanggulangan kemiskinan sekaligus pengembangan kebijakan di bidang perlindungan sosial bagi keluarga Rumah Tangga Sangat Miskin (RTSM), pemerintah mengeluarkan sebuah kebijakan yaitu Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH). Program Keluarga Harapan adalah bantuan sosial yang diwujudkan dengan bantuan tunai, pendidikan dan kesehatan yang ditujukan kepada Rumah Tangga Sangat Miskin (RTSM) khususnya yang memiliki anak usia 0-15 tahun dan ibu hamil/nifas. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi pencapaian Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) di Desa Tedunan, Kecamatan Kedung, Kabupaten Jepara. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan pendekatan kuantitatif yang didukung dengan data kualitatif. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode survey dengan responden sebanyak 40 orang.Kata kunci: kebijakan, kemiskinan, PKH


Author(s):  
Tim Goedemé

This chapter discusses Tim Goedemé's cross-national research work in order to establish reference budgets for EU member states and facilitate the European Commission's (EC) task of monitoring income adequacy in Europe. It focuses on the “Improving Poverty Reduction in Europe” (ImPRovE) project that worked closely with six country teams based in Antwerp, Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Helsinki and Milan. It also looks into the development of more comprehensive reference budgets that span all expenditures needs in both food and non-food. The chapter reflects on the key lessons and contributions from the ImPRovE project and discusses some of the issues on establishing a common language and “standardized” approach. It suggests how approaches on reference budgets strengthen EU social protection systems and social indicators and provide new sociological insights into European societies and public attitudes.


2018 ◽  
pp. 85-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geranda Notten ◽  
Anne-Catherine Guio

In 2010, the European Union (EU) committed to lifting at least 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion, using income poverty, severe material deprivation, and (quasi-)joblessness as metrics to measure progress on this goal. As part of a broader set of commonly agreed indicators, the EU also (crudely) measures the impact of transfers by comparing income poverty rates before and after social transfers. This chapter develops a regression approach to study the effects of transfers on material deprivation by predicting the material deprivation rate before social transfers. We apply the method to pre-recession and post-austerity EU-SILC data for Germany, Greece, Poland, and the United Kingdom. We find that, in addition to reducing income poverty, transfers substantially reduce the extent and depth of material deprivation. Changes in social transfers, therefore, have a twofold effect on Europe’s poverty-reduction target.


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