IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v151y2020i1d10.1007_s11205-020-02377-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Social Welfare Gains in Social Assistance Programs: An Application to European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Luis Ayala

    (UNED)

  • Elena Bárcena-Martín

    (Universidad de Málaga)

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a framework for a complete assessment of the overall welfare gains resulting from social assistance programs. We make use of a social welfare function that satisfies several properties that must be considered when measuring the protection provided by these programs. We propose measuring the welfare gains that a society derives from these programs by summing up them in a way that is consistent with the standard value judgements in the income inequality literature. We also propose analytical tools that accumulate the welfare gains that, apart from having the advantage of being easy to interpret, allow the ranking of different scenarios and have an associated dominance criterion. To illustrate our approach, we measure the welfare gains caused by social assistance schemes in European countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Ayala & Elena Bárcena-Martín, 2020. "Measuring Social Welfare Gains in Social Assistance Programs: An Application to European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 205-229, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:151:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02377-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02377-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02377-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-020-02377-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luis Ayala & Elena Bárcena-Martín, 2018. "A social welfare approach for measuring welfare protection," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(1), pages 41-59, March.
    2. Chrysa Leventi & Holly Sutherland & Iva Valentinova Tasseva, 2016. "Improving poverty reduction in Europe: what works (best) where?," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/16, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Bea Cantillon & Zachary Parolin & Diego Collado, 2018. "Rising Inequalities and Welfare Generosity: Structural Constraints on the Adequacy of Minimum Incomes in European and American Welfare States," Working Papers 1809, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    4. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2018. "Segregation and Social Welfare: A Methodological Proposal with an Application to the U.S," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 257-280, May.
    5. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    6. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    7. Yonatan Ben-Shalom & Robert A. Moffitt & John Karl Scholz, "undated". "An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Programs in the United States," Mathematica Policy Research Reports cfc848ed6ab647bcb38ab47bb, Mathematica Policy Research.
    8. Anthony Shorrocks, 2009. "Spell incidence, spell duration and the measurement of unemployment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(3), pages 295-310, September.
    9. Coral Río & Carlos Gradín & Olga Cantó, 2011. "The measurement of gender wage discrimination: the distributional approach revisited," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(1), pages 57-86, March.
    10. Saul, S., 1992. "An Illfare Approach to the Measurement of Unemployment," Papers e9204, Western Sydney - School of Business And Technology.
    11. Markus Jäntti & Ravi Kanbur & Milla Nyyssölä & Jukka Pirttilä, 2014. "Poverty and Welfare Measurement on the Basis of Prospect Theory," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 182-205, March.
    12. Anthony Shorrocks, 2009. "On the measurement of unemployment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(3), pages 311-327, September.
    13. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    14. Besharov, Douglas J. & Couch, Kenneth A. (ed.), 2012. "Counting the Poor: New Thinking About European Poverty Measures and Lessons for the United States," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199860586.
    15. Jenkins,Stephen P. & Kapteyn,Arie & Praag,Bernard M. S. van (ed.), 1998. "The Distribution of Welfare and Household Production," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521623025, September.
    16. Sarah Marchal & Ive Marx & Natascha Van Mechelen, 2016. "Minimum income protection in the austerity tide," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Jenkins, Stephen P., 1994. "Earnings discrimination measurement : A distributional approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 81-102, March.
    18. Jenkins, Stephen P & Lambert, Peter J, 1997. "Three 'I's of Poverty Curves, with an Analysis of UK Poverty Trends," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 317-327, July.
    19. Manimay Sengupta, 2009. "Unemployment duration and the measurement of unemployment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(3), pages 273-294, September.
    20. Alari Paulus, 2016. "The antipoverty performance of universal and means-tested benefits with costly take-up," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/12, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vanda Almeida & Silvia De Poli & Adrián Hernández, 2022. "The effectiveness of Minimum Income schemes in the EU," JRC Working Papers on Taxation & Structural Reforms 2022-09, Joint Research Centre.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2018. "Segregation and Social Welfare: A Methodological Proposal with an Application to the U.S," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 257-280, May.
    2. Coral del Rio & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2015. "Segregation and social welfare," Working Papers 378, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Carlos Gradín & Coral Del Río & Olga Cantó, 2012. "Measuring Poverty Accounting For Time," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 58(2), pages 330-354, June.
    4. Carlos Gradín & Olga Cantó & Coral Río, 2017. "Measuring employment deprivation in the EU using a household-level index," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 639-667, June.
    5. Barrett, Garry F. & Donald, Stephen G. & Hsu, Yu-Chin, 2016. "Consistent tests for poverty dominance relations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 360-373.
    6. Zheng, Buhong, 2001. "Statistical inference for poverty measures with relative poverty lines," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 337-356, April.
    7. Naouel Chtioui & Mohamed Ayadi, 2018. "Rank-based poverty measures and poverty ordering with an application to Tunisia," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 17(2), pages 117-139, July.
    8. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Araar, Abdelkrim & Giles, John, 2010. "Chronic and transient poverty: Measurement and estimation, with evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 266-277, March.
    9. Yolanda Pena‐Boquete, 2009. "A comparative analysis of the evolution of gender wage discrimination: Spain vs. Galicia," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(1), pages 161-180, March.
    10. Elena Bárcena & Olga Cantó, 2018. "A simple subgroup decomposable measure of downward (and upward) income mobility," Working Papers 472, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. Laudicella, Mauro & Cookson, Richard & Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel, 2009. "Health care deprivation profiles in the measurement of inequality and inequity: An application to GP fundholding in the English NHS," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1048-1061, December.
    12. Edwin Fourrier-Nicolaï & Michel Lubrano, 2020. "Bayesian inference for TIP curves: an application to child poverty in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(1), pages 91-111, March.
    13. Lucía Gorjón & Sara de la Rica & Antonio Villar, 2018. "The social cost of unemployment: the Spanish labour market from a social welfare approach," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2018-22, FEDEA.
    14. Coral del Río & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2001. "TIPs for poverty analysis. The case of Spain, 1980-81 to 1990-91," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 25(1), pages 63-91, January.
    15. Zheng, Buhong, 2000. "Minimum Distribution-Sensitivity, Poverty Aversion, and Poverty Orderings," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 116-137, November.
    16. Carlos Gradin & Olga Canto & Coral del Rio, 2012. "Measuring employment deprivation among households in the EU," Working Papers 247, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    17. Walter Bossert & Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D’Ambrosio, 2019. "Poverty and Time," Themes in Economics, in: Satya R. Chakravarty (ed.), Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance, pages 63-82, Springer.
      • BOSSERT, Walter & CHAKRAVARTY, Satya R. & D’AMBROSIO, Conchita, 2008. "Poverty and Time," Cahiers de recherche 05-2008, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
      • Walter Bossert & Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2010. "Poverty and Time," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-074, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
      • BOSSERT, Walter & CHAKRAVARTY, Satya R. & D’AMBROSIO, Conchita, 2008. "Poverty and Time," Cahiers de recherche 2008-05, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
      • Walter Bossert & Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D’Ambrosio, 2008. "Poverty and Time," Working Papers 87, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    18. James E. Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Poverty Measures: Twenty-Five Years Later," Working Papers 2010-14, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    19. Bibi Sami, 2003. "On the Impact of Better Targeted Transfers on Poverty in Tunisia," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 17-35, January.
    20. Jean–Yves Duclos & Phillipe Grégoire, 2002. "Absolute and Relative Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 471-492, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:151:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02377-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.