Joint Income-Wealth Poverty in a Cross-National Perspective: The Role of Country-Level Indicators

We examine the associations of a country’s macroeconomic and social policy indicators and diverse household characteristics with joint-income-wealth-poverty (JIWP) among households with members aged 50 years and over in 18 European countries and Israel. A multidimensional approach was used to integrate income and wealth by defining four groups of households: twice-poor, economically vulnerable (poor only by wealth), protected poor (poor only by income), and non-poor. JIWP was examined for two wealth concepts—the ‘net-worth’ and the ‘liquid-wealth’. Using the sixth wave of the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement (SHARE), we employed multilevel multinomial models to study JIWP across countries. JIWP varied widely across countries, with both country’s features and household characteristics shaping the picture of poverty. GDP per capita was negatively associated with JIWP. Total (gross) social expenditure and public social expenditure per capita were negatively associated with risk of JIWP. Greater minimum guaranteed income among working age households and higher replacement rate of pensions among elderly households were also negatively associated with JIWP. Higher public expenditure on health and better quality of the healthcare system decreased the risk of JIWP, but heavier reliance on private financing of the healthcare increased it. Implications for research and policy are discussed.