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Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation

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  • Kenneth Nelson

Abstract

Substantial cross-national differences in poverty alleviation are well documented, but theextent to which different parts of the social transfer system account for this variation is still relatively unexamined. This study analyses the redistributive effects of specific social policy institutions in a comparative perspective. The main question is to what extent non-targeted provisions and means-tested benefits reduce relative economic poverty in different institutional settings. It is shown that the structure of non -targeted entitlements is more important than that of means-tested benefits in explaining differences in poverty alleviation across countries. The study also presents a new method for estimating the anti-poverty effects of separate parts of the social transfer system. This method decomposes the anti-poverty effects of a set of social transfers into independent and combined effects, which produces more valid results than prevalent methods used to assess the impact of a particular transfer on poverty. The countries included in this study are Canada, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The empirical analyses are based on the Social Citizenship Indicators Program (SCIP) and Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) for data points describing the situation in the mid-1990s.

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  • Kenneth Nelson, 2004. "Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation," LIS Working papers 372, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:372
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Nikolov, Plamen & Bonci, Matthew, 2020. "Do public program benefits crowd out private transfers in developing countries? A critical review of recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Wim Van Lancker & Natascha Van Mechelen, 2014. "Universalism under siege? Exploring the association between targeting, child benefits and child poverty across 26 countries," Working Papers 1401, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Maggie Ka-Wai Lau & Kee-Lee Chou, 2019. "Targeting, Universalism and Child Poverty in Hong Kong," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(1), pages 255-275, February.
    4. Ive Marx & Brian Nolan & Javier Olivera, 2014. "The Welfare State and Anti-Poverty Policy in Rich Countries," Working Papers 1403, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    5. Sommet, Nicolas & Spini, Dario, 2022. "Financial scarcity undermines health across the globe and the life course," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    6. Marisa Hidalgo, 2015. "Poverty in adulthood: personal and context factors. Evidence from some European countries," Working Papers 15.14, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    7. Manuel Schechtl, 2021. "Taking from the Disadvantaged? Consumption Tax Induced Poverty Across Household Types in 11 OECD Countries," LIS Working papers 807, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. David Brady & Rebekah Burroway, 2012. "Targeting, Universalism, and Single-Mother Poverty: A Multilevel Analysis Across 18 Affluent Democracies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 719-746, May.
    9. Krebs, Emanuel & Wang, Linwei & Olding, Michelle & DeBeck, Kora & Hayashi, Kanna & Milloy, M.-J. & Wood, Evan & Nosyk, Bohdan & Richardson, Lindsey, 2016. "Increased drug use and the timing of social assistance receipt among people who use illicit drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 94-102.
    10. Kenneth Nelson, 2008. "Adequacy of Social Minimums: Workfare, Gender, and Poverty Alleviation in Welfare Democracies," LIS Working papers 474, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Silvia Avram & Horacio Levy & Holly Sutherland, 2014. "Income redistribution in the European Union," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, December.
    12. Bäckman, Olof, 2005. "Welfare States, Social Structure and the Dynamics of Poverty Rates. A comparative study of 16 countries, 1980-2000," Arbetsrapport 2005:7, Institute for Futures Studies.
    13. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Laurie C. Maldonado, 2017. "Single-Parent Families and In-Work Poverty," LIS Working papers 687, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Koutsampelas, Christos, 2014. "The introduction of a GMI scheme in Cyprus: family structure, equivalence scales and policy challenges," EUROMOD Working Papers EM10/14, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    15. Nelson, Kenneth & Fritzell, Johan, 2014. "Welfare states and population health: The role of minimum income benefits for mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 63-71.
    16. Silvia Avram & Eva Militaru, 2016. "Interactions Between Policy Effects, Population Characteristics and the Tax-Benefit System: An Illustration Using Child Poverty and Child Related Policies in Romania and the Czech Republic," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1365-1385, September.
    17. Ferrarini, T. (Tommy) & Nelson, K. (Kenneth) & Höög, H. (Helena), 2012. "GINI DP 49: The Fiscalization of Child Benefits in OECD Countries," GINI Discussion Papers 49, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    18. Olof B ckman, 2005. "Welfare States, Social Structure and the Dynamics of Poverty Rates: A Comparative Study of 16 Countries, 1980-2000," LIS Working papers 408, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    19. Patricia Peinado & Felipe Serrano, 2014. "Fiscal Crisis, Social Security Reform and Vulnerable Population," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(1), pages 129-143, Februar.
    20. Brady, David & Bostic, Amie, 2015. "Paradoxes of Social Policy: Welfare Transfers, Relative Poverty, and Redistribution Preferences," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 80(2), pages 268-298.
    21. Mantovani, Daniela, 2018. "Comparing redistributive efficiency of tax-benefit systems in Europe," EUROMOD Working Papers EM12/18, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    22. Sabine Israel, 2016. "More than Cash: Societal Influences on the Risk of Material Deprivation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 619-637, November.
    23. Avram, Silvia, 2013. "Outcomes of social assistance in Central and Eastern Europe: a pre-transfer post-transfer comparison," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-18, Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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