IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/povpop/v3y2011i2p1-15.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Differences in Anti‐Poverty Approaches in Europe and The United States: A Cross‐Atlantic Descriptive Policy Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Koen Caminada
  • Megan C. Martin

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is an important objective of European countries and of the United States. If these ‘rich’ states offer elaborate systems of income maintenance, why is there still a considerable amount of poverty? And why are anti‐poverty outcomes so different in the United States compared to European countries? This paper completes a trilogy of cross‐country research papers on anti‐poverty policy. Two former papers analyzed the effects of social transfers on both poverty levels and poverty alleviation through tax and social transfer systems. These papers marked the United States as an outlier: high poverty rates, low public social spending but high private social expenditures, a rather strong belief that people are poor because of laziness or lack of will, and remarkable differences across the Federal States caused by state discretion. Therefore, this paper discusses differences in anti‐poverty approaches between the European Union and the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Koen Caminada & Megan C. Martin, 2011. "Differences in Anti‐Poverty Approaches in Europe and The United States: A Cross‐Atlantic Descriptive Policy Analysis," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(2), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:povpop:v:3:y:2011:i:2:p:1-15
    DOI: 10.2202/1944-2858.1153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1944-2858.1153
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1944-2858.1153?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caminada, Koen & Goudswaard, Kees & Koster, Ferry, 2010. "Social Income Transfers and Poverty Alleviation in OECD Countries," MPRA Paper 27345, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2005. "Are Public and Private Social Expenditures Complementary?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 11(2), pages 175-189, May.
    3. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2009. "Effectiveness of Poverty Reduction in the EU: A Descriptive Analysis," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 1-49, July.
    4. Timothy M. Smeeding, 2005. "Public Policy, Economic Inequality, and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(s1), pages 955-983, December.
    5. Notten, Geranda & Neubourg, Chris de, 2007. "Relative or absolute poverty in the US and EU? The battle of the rates," MPRA Paper 5313, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 May 2007.
    6. Atkinson, Tony & Cantillon, Bea & Marlier, Eric & Nolan, Brian, 2002. "Social Indicators: The EU and Social Inclusion," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199253494.
    7. Timothy Smeeding, 2006. "Poor People in Rich Nations: The United States in Comparative Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 69-90, Winter.
    8. repec:kap:iaecre:v:11:y:2005:i:2:p:175-189 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Caminada, Koen & Goudswaard, Kees & Koster, Ferry, 2010. "Social Income Transfers and Poverty Alleviation in OECD Countries," MPRA Paper 27345, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Martin, Megan & Caminada, Koen, 2009. "Welfare reform in the United States. A descriptive policy analysis," MPRA Paper 20139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Caminada, Koen & Goudswaard, Kees, 2009. "Social expenditure and poverty reduction in the EU15 and other OECD countries," MPRA Paper 20138, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2009. "Effectiveness of Poverty Reduction in the EU: A Descriptive Analysis," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 1-49, July.
    5. Koen Caminada & Chen Wang, 2011. "Disentangling Income Inequality and the Redistributive Effect of Social Transfers and Taxes in 36 LIS Countries," LIS Working papers 567, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Salvatore Morelli & Timothy Smeeding & Jeffrey Thompson, 2014. "Post-1970 Trends in Within-Country Inequality and Poverty: Rich and Middle Income Countries," CSEF Working Papers 356, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    7. Timothy Smeeding & Jonathan Gershuny & Karen Robson & Coady Wing, 2009. "Income Poverty and Income Support for Minority and Immigrant Children in Rich Countries," LIS Working papers 527, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. Notten, Geranda & de Neubourg, Chris, 2007. "The policy relevance of absolute and relative poverty headcounts: What's in a number?," MPRA Paper 4668, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Francisco Azpitarte, 2010. "Measuring poverty using both income and wealth: A cross-country comparison between the U.S. and Spain," Working Papers 153, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. Merle Zwiers & Ferry Koster, 2015. "The local structure of the welfare state: Uneven effects of social spending on poverty within countries," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(1), pages 87-102, January.
    11. Notten, Geranda & Neubourg, Chris de, 2007. "Poverty in Europe and the USA: Exchanging official measurement methods," MPRA Paper 4669, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Timothy Smeeding & Eva Sierminska & Andrea Brandolini, 2006. "Cross National Comparison of Income and Wealth Status in Retirement: First Results from the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS)," LWS Working papers 2, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Geranda Notten & Julie Kaplan, 2022. "An Empirical Validation Method for Narrowing the Range of Poverty Thresholds," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 251-271, May.
    14. Chen Wang & Kees Goudswaard & Koen Caminada, 2012. "Disentangling Income Inequality and the Redistributive Effect of Taxes and Transfers in 20 LIS Countries Over Time Evidence from the LIS Data," LIS Working papers 581, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    15. Megan C. Martin & Koen Caminada, 2011. "Welfare Reform in the U.S.: A Policy Overview Analysis," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1), pages 1-38, March.
    16. Francisco Azpitarte, 2014. "Measuring Poverty using both Income and Wealth: A Cross-Country Comparison between the U.S. and Spain," LWS Working papers 18, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    17. Jorgen Hansen & Roger Wahlberg, 2009. "Poverty and its persistence: a comparison of natives and immigrants in Sweden," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 105-132, June.
    18. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río, 2024. "Where Do Families Headed by Same-Sex Couples Fall Within the U.S. Income Distribution?," Working Papers 2401, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    19. Rebecca M. Blank, 2008. "Presidential address: How to improve poverty measurement in the United States," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 233-254.
    20. Caminada, Koen & Goudswaard, Kees & Wang, Chen, 2012. "Disentangling income inequality and the redistributive effect of taxes and transfers in 20 LIS countries over time," MPRA Paper 42350, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:povpop:v:3:y:2011:i:2:p:1-15. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1944-2858 .

    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.