Do means-tested benefits alleviate poverty?: Evidence on Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom from the Luxembourg Income Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Behrendt

This article analyses the relationship between means-tested benefits and poverty in Western Europe. Means-tested benefits, as social assistance or housing benefits, are designed as safeguards against poverty for the low-income strata of the population, but our knowledge on their impact is fairly limited. How effective are they in reducing poverty rates? To what degree can they fill the gap that income redistribution through taxes and non-means-tested social security benefits leaves? How large is the impact of means-tested transfers in private household budgets, and how does the role of means-tested benefits vary across countries? This article uses the household data of the Luxembourg Income Study to explore the effectiveness of means-tested programmes in terms of poverty alleviation in Britain, Germany and Sweden in the early 1990s. The results of this analysis show a considerable variation in the degree means-tested benefits can actually protect people from poverty. A comparison of household income before and after means-tested benefits exhibits different patterns of poverty alleviation. Using four relative poverty lines (30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent and 60 percent of median household income adjusted for family size), this piece of research illustrates that there is considerable variation in the degree people are lifted up the income scale by means-tested benefits.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
H. XAVIER JARA TAMAYO ◽  
DARIA POPOVA

Abstract Dual or multiple earnership has been considered an important factor to prevent in-work poverty. The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of second earnership on the risk of in-work poverty and the role of the tax-benefit system in moderating this risk. Our analysis refers to 2014 and employs EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union and the United Kingdom. In order to assess the role of second earners in preventing in-work poverty we simulate a counterfactual scenario where second earners become unemployed. Our results show that the effect of net replacement rates (i.e. the ratio of household income before and after the transition of second earners to unemployment) on the probability of in-work poverty is negative and statistically significant, but in relative terms it appears to be small compared to the effects of individual labour market characteristics, such as low pay and part-time employment.


Author(s):  
Edy Effendi ◽  
Muhammad Imron

Research on the role of the APIP review of the Ministry/agency Work Plan and Budget document to determine the impact on the efficiency of ministry/agency spending (case study at the Ministry of Religion). The method used in this study uses simple linear regression with dummy. The use of linear regression is used to examine the relationship between independent variables (certain types of expenditure) and dependent variables (total expenditure). Whereas, dummy is used to find out before and after the APIP review is done. Throughout the author's search, this research has never been done. Based on the results of linear regression obtained, the APIP review significantly had a positive effect on official travel expenditure and honorarium but did not significantly affect building spending and equipment. Abstrak   Penelitian atas peran reviu APIP atas dokumen Rencana Kerja dan Anggaran Kementerian Negara/Lembaga untuk mengetahui dampaknya terhadap efisiensi belanja kementerian/lembaga (studi kasus pada Kementerian Agama). Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini menggunakan regresi linier sederhana dengan dummy. Penggunaan regresi liner digunakan untuk meneliti hubungan antara variable independen (jenis belanja tertentu) dan variable dependen (total belanja). Sedangkan, dummy digunakan untuk mengetahui sebelum dan setelah reviu APIP dilakukan. Sepanjang penelusuran penulis, penelitian ini belum pernah dilakukan. Berdasarkan hasil regresi linier diperoleh, reviu APIP signifikan berpengaruh positif terhadap  belanja perjalanan dinas dan honorarium tetapi tidak signifikan berbengaruh terhadap belanja gedung dan alat.


Author(s):  
J.A Prasansha Kumari ◽  
Dr. S.M. Ferdous Azam ◽  
Prof. Siti Khalidah

This article highlights the moderating effect of living areas of the borrowers on the impact of microfinance programs on poverty alleviation. The study has utilized the data from 497 borrowers of Samurdhi microfinance in five disaster-affected districts in the country to examines that two different living areas (disaster-affected and non-disaster affected area) of borrowers moderate the relationship between microfinance services and poverty alleviation. The Multi- Group CFA analysis was performed to identify the moderating effect using AMOS 21. Quantitative results were finding revealed that the moderation tests were significant for all the three microfinance services on poverty alleviation. The effect of microfinance services of borrowers in the disaster-affected area higher than the borrowers in non-disaster area.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Mahwish Siraj ◽  
Humayun Khan

The study examines the impact of Micro Hydropower (MHP) projects on households’ income, consumption and diversification of livelihood strategies in District Hattian Bala, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. A multinomial logistic model is used to investigate the possible role of MHP and other control variables on households’ adoption of livelihood strategies. The Results show that MHP-micro hydropower has a positive significant effect on household’s adoption of non-farm and diversified livelihood strategies. These findings suggest that MHP projects in Northern areas of Pakistan could help in improving household’s income and consumption through adoption of high income livelihood strategies. Keywords: Micro Hydropower (MHP), Livelihood Strategies, Income and Expenditures, Poverty Alleviation, Multinomial Logistic Model


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Sana Fayyaz ◽  
Roslan Abdul Hakim ◽  
Shazida Jan Mohd Khan

The issue of marginalisation of women in development, particularly in South Asia, has been highlighted in the development literature. Women in this region are found to be generally poor, lack of education, and have a low quality of life, due to various economic and cultural reasons. Thus, unlocking the potentials of these women appears to be a plausible move as this could improve not only their income, but also their quality of life. One such initiative to unlock the potential of these women is microcredit program, where small loan is given to these women to enable them to embark on economic activities, which consequently improve their household income and quality of life. Indeed, there have been many studies that examine the relationship between microcredit and quality of life, and found that there is a positive relationship between microcredit and quality of life of the borrowers (women). However, most of these studies implicitly assume that the impact of microcredit on quality of life is direct, and hence, did not consider the role of other factors in evaluating the impact of microcredit on quality of life. Here, we argue that, the impact of microcredit on quality of life is not direct, but rather indirect. We believe personal empowerment does play an important role in influencing the impact of microcredit on quality of life. The mere availability of microcredit, in our view, did not guarantee a positive impact on quality of life. Rather, the availability of credit to borrowers affects their personal confidence, which consequently affects their level of quality of life. This paper discusses the theoretical framework by which these variables - microcredit, personal empowerment and quality of life - are inter-related.


1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 185-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick McAuslan

I chose the topic of land and land policy as my contribution to this collection of essays in honour of Tony Allott because it seemed to me that there are certain parallels between the role of land in society and the role of Tony Allott in the development of the study of African Law and indeed of the study of the law of pre-literate societies by lawyers in the United Kingdom. Land is central to the workings of any society, but especially is this so in respect of pre-literate societies and societies subjected to the impact of colonialism. So too has Tony's work been central to the growth of our understanding of the workings of customary law in African society and the manifold problems created by the impact of received law i.e. for the most part Western Europe law brought by the colonial powers, on customary law and society. Those of us who began our careers of law teaching and legal scholarship in Africa owe a great debt to Tony for his pioneering work in the field and for his tireless efforts to promote African legal scholarship. In going beyond Africa as I do in this essay, I am once again following in Tony's path for he long ago realised that law in Africa is a part only of the great family of law in the developing world and one can no more isolate African legal scholarship from that world than one can isolate land from the society of which it is a part. It is to this that I now turn.


Sains Insani ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Megat Ayop Megat Arifin ◽  
Abd. Halim Ahmad

Whitsleblowing is one of the positive practices in organizations that are able to raise the level of integrity among the members of an organization. However, the roles of whistleblowing also inevitably invites a response, especially among members of the organization itself. This is because such practices are viewed as one factor that may be detrimental to the organization in addition to revealing the reporter (whistleblower) to some external threats and intimidation of discrimination within the organization. This paper is an attempt to examine the relationship between perceptions of members of the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) Contingent of Perak through the role of whistleblowing practices to increase the perception of the integrity of the members. Next, identify the purpose of the whistleblowing and its effect on the integrity of the members of the organization. This study used a descriptive quantitative analysis to identify patterns of relationship that exists between the perception of whistleblowing practices with perceptions of increased integrity based on three basic variables of demographic factors, response to whistleblowing and the impact of making the report. The results showed that members of the Perak’s police have a positive perception of whistleblowing practices which are seen to be done in improving the integrity of the members.Keywords: whistleblowing, perception, RMP members, culture, integrity, organization, influence. ABSTRAK: Whitsleblowing merupakan salah satu amalan positif dalam organisasi yang mampu untuk meningkatkan tahap integriti ahli-ahli dalam sesebuah organisasi. Namun begitu, amalan whistleblowing juga turut tidak dapat mengelak daripada mengundang pelbagai respon khususnya dalam kalangan ahli organisasi itu sendiri. Amalan sebegini turut dilihat sebagai salah satu faktor yang boleh memudaratkan organisasi di samping mendedahkan pelapor (whistleblower) kepada beberapa bentuk ancaman ugutan dari luar dan diskriminasi dalam organisasi. Kertas ini merupakan satu upaya untuk melihat perkaitan antara persepsi anggota Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) Kontinjen Perak melalui peranan amalan whistleblowing terhadap persepsi peningkatan integriti anggota. Seterusnya, mengenalpasti maksud whistleblowing dan pengaruhnya terhadap tahap integriti anggota dalam organisasi. Kajian ini menggunakan analisis kuantitatif berbentuk deskriptif bagi mengenalpasti corak hubungan yang wujud antara persepsi terhadap amalan whistleblowing dengan persepsi terhadap peningkatan integriti berdasarkan tiga pembolehubah asas iaitu faktor demografi, tanggapan terhadap whistleblowing dan kesan daripada tindakan membuat laporan. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa anggota PDRM Perak mempunyai persepsi yang positif terhadap whistleblowing yang mana ianya dilihat perlu dilaksanakan dalam meningkatkan integriti anggota.Kata kunci: whistleblowing, persepsi, amalan, anggota PDRM, budaya, integriti, organisasi, pengaruh.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Herlin Hamimi ◽  
Abdul Ghafar Ismail ◽  
Muhammad Hasbi Zaenal

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam which has a function of faith, social and economic functions. Muslims who can pay zakat are required to give at least 2.5 per cent of their wealth. The problem of poverty prevalent in disadvantaged regions because of the difficulty of access to information and communication led to a gap that is so high in wealth and resources. The instrument of zakat provides a paradigm in the achievement of equitable wealth distribution and healthy circulation. Zakat potentially offers a better life and improves the quality of human being. There is a human quality improvement not only in economic terms but also in spiritual terms such as improving religiousity. This study aims to examine the role of zakat to alleviate humanitarian issues in disadvantaged regions such as Sijunjung, one of zakat beneficiaries and impoverished areas in Indonesia. The researcher attempted a Cibest method to capture the impact of zakat beneficiaries before and after becoming a member of Zakat Community Development (ZCD) Program in material and spiritual value. The overall analysis shows that zakat has a positive impact on disadvantaged regions development and enhance the quality of life of the community. There is an improvement in the average of mustahik household incomes after becoming a member of ZCD Program. Cibest model demonstrates that material, spiritual, and absolute poverty index decreased by 10, 5, and 6 per cent. Meanwhile, the welfare index is increased by 21 per cent. These findings have significant implications for developing the quality of life in disadvantaged regions in Sijunjung. Therefore, zakat is one of the instruments to change the status of disadvantaged areas to be equivalent to other areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-109
Author(s):  
Heba Aziz ◽  
Osman El-Said ◽  
Marike Bontenbal

The objective of this study was to measure the level of cruise tourists' satisfaction as well as the relationship between satisfaction, recommendation, return intention, and expenditure. Also, the impact of factors such as nationality, length of the visit, and age on the level of expenditure was measured. An empirical approach for data collection was followed and a total of 152 questionnaires were collected from cruise tourists visiting the capital city of Oman, Muscat, as cruise liners anchor at Sultan Qaboos Port. Results of the regression analysis supported the existence of a causal relationship between satisfaction with destination attributes, overall satisfaction, recommendation, return intention, and expenditure. It was found that the average expenditure varies according to age and length of the visit. Recommendations for policy makers were suggested on how to increase the role of cruise tourism in strengthening the economy.


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