IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp6068.html

Can Higher Employment Levels Bring Lower Poverty in the EU? Regression Based Simulations of the Europe 2020 Target

Author

Listed:
  • Marx, Ive

    (University of Antwerp)

  • Vandenbroucke, Pieter

    (University of Antwerp)

  • Verbist, Gerlinde

    (University of Antwerp)

Abstract

At the European level and in most EU member states, higher employment levels are seen as key to better poverty outcomes. But what can we expect the actual impact to be? Up until now shift-share analysis has been used to estimate the impact of rising employment on relative income poverty. This method has serious limitations. We propose a more sophisticated simulation model that builds on regression based estimates of employment probabilities and wages. We use this model to estimate the impact on relative income poverty of moving towards the Europe 2020 target of 75 percent of the working aged population in work. Two sensitivity checks are included: giving priority in job allocation to jobless households and imputing low instead of estimated wages. This paper shows that employment growth does not necessarily result in lower relative poverty shares, a result that is largely consistent with observed outcomes over the past decade.

Suggested Citation

  • Marx, Ive & Vandenbroucke, Pieter & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2011. "Can Higher Employment Levels Bring Lower Poverty in the EU? Regression Based Simulations of the Europe 2020 Target," IZA Discussion Papers 6068, IZA Network @ LISER.
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp6068.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans-Jürgen Andreß & Henning Lohmann (ed.), 2008. "The Working Poor in Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13060.
    2. Marloes Graaf-zijl & Brian Nolan, 2011. "GINI DP 5: Household Joblessness and its Impacts on Poverty and Deprivation in Europe," GINI Discussion Papers 5, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    3. Bea Cantillon, 2011. "The Paradox of the Social Investment State. Growth, Employment and Poverty in the Lisbon Era," Working Papers 1103, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    4. Nolan, Brian & Whelan, Christopher T., 2011. "Poverty and Deprivation in Europe," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199588435.
    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. Dagmar Blatná & Lenka Hudrlíková, 2014. "Analysis of Europe 2020 Indicators Using Regression Analysis [Analýza indikátorů Evropa 2020 regresní analýzou]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(1), pages 72-93.
    2. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Behind and beyond the (head count) employment rate," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(3), pages 657-681, June.

    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. Ive Marx & Pieter Vandenbroucke & Verbist, G. (Gerlinde), 2011. "GINI DP 15: Can higher employment levels bring down poverty in the EU?," GINI Discussion Papers 15, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    2. Jeroen Horemans, 2016. "Polarisation of Non-standard Employment in Europe: Exploring a Missing Piece of the Inequality Puzzle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 171-189, January.
    3. Marx, Ive & Nolan, Brian & Olivera, Javier, 2014. "The Welfare State and Anti-Poverty Policy in Rich Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 8154, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Pim Verbunt & Anne-Catherine Guio, 2019. "Explaining Differences Within and Between Countries in the Risk of Income Poverty and Severe Material Deprivation: Comparing Single and Multilevel Analyses," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 827-868, July.
    5. Mary Daly, 2012. "Paradigms in EU social policy: a critical account of Europe 2020," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 18(3), pages 273-284, August.
    6. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Wim Lancker & Diego Collado & Bea Cantillon, 2020. "Trends in Women’s Employment and Poverty Rates in OECD Countries: A Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 37-61, March.
    7. Bertrand Maître & Brian Nolan & Christopher T. Whelan, 2013. "A Critical Evaluation of the EU 2020 Poverty and Social Exclusion Target: An Analysis of EU-SILC 2009," Working Papers 201309, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    8. Anne-Catherine Guio & Eric Marlier & Frank Vandenbroucke & Pim Verbunt, 2022. "Differences in Child Deprivation Across Europe: The Role of In-Cash and In-Kind Transfers," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(6), pages 2363-2388, December.
    9. Brandolini, Andrea & Rosolia, Alfonso, 2019. "The Distribution of Well-Being among Europeans," IZA Discussion Papers 12350, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. 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.
    11. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Wim van Lancker & Diego Collado & Bea Cantillon, 2016. "Has the Potential for Compensating Poverty by Women's Employment Growth Been Depleted?," LIS Working papers 664, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Watson, Dorothy & Maître, Bertrand & Whelan, Christopher T., 2012. "Work and Poverty in Ireland: An Analysis of CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2004-2010," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT226.
    13. Annemie Nys & Leen Meeusen & Vincent Corluy, 2016. "Who cares? A Counterfactual Analysis of Household Work Intensity in Households with Disabled Family Members," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 675-691, September.
    14. Mikael Nygård & Marja Lindberg & Fredrica Nyqvist & Camilla Härtull, 2019. "The Role of Cash Benefit and In-Kind Benefit Spending for Child Poverty in Times of Austerity: An Analysis of 22 European Countries 2006–2015," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 533-552, December.
    15. Hristina Blagoycheva, 2016. "Employment and the 'Working Poor' Phenomenon in the EU," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(3), pages 3-18.
    16. Horemans, Jeroen & Marx, Ive, 2017. "Poverty and Material Deprivation among the Self-Employed in Europe: An Exploration of a Relatively Uncharted Landscape," IZA Discussion Papers 11007, IZA Network @ LISER.
    17. Christopher T. Whelan & Bertrand Maítre, 2013. "The Great Recession and the Changing Distribution of Economic Vulnerability by Social Class: The Irish Case," Working Papers 201312, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    18. Ive Marx & Sarah Marchal & Brian Nolan, 2012. "GINI DP 56: Mind the Gap: Net Incomes of Minimum Wage Workers in the EU and the US," GINI Discussion Papers 56, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    19. Andrea Brandolini & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Behind and beyond the (head count) employment rate," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(3), pages 657-681, June.
    20. Sprengholz, Maximilian, 2025. "Nativity gaps in income poverty in Germany: Examining the role of gendered work intensity and wage patterns in couple households," OSF Preprints ms6jn_v1, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp6068. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    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.