IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lis/liswps/474.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adequacy of Social Minimums: Workfare, Gender, and Poverty Alleviation in Welfare Democracies

Author

Listed:
  • Kenneth Nelson

Abstract

In the Western countries poverty has increased along with the resurgence of low-income targeting and the increased conditionality of social assistance. This paper provides new evidence on the relationship between social minimums and income adequacy by examining the extent to which social benefits distribute income at levels necessary to escape poverty. The empirical analyzes combine macro-level institutional data and micro-level income data for 17 industrialized welfare democracies. It is shown that the period 1990-1995 is characterized primarily by stagnation, whereas social assistance adequacy declined in the latter half of the nineties. In most countries, social assistance fails to provide income above the poverty threshold, something that makes it difficult to conceive benefits as just redistributive instruments.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/474.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nelson, Kenneth, 2007. "Introducing SaMip: The Social Assistance and Minimum Income Protection Interim Dataset," Working Paper Series 11/2007, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    2. Kenneth Nelson, 2004. "Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation," LIS Working papers 372, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Handler, Joel F., 2005. "Myth and ceremony in workfare: rights, contracts, and client satisfaction," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 101-124, February.
    4. Susanna Sandström & Timothy Smeeding, 2005. "Poverty and Income Maintenance in Old Age: A Cross-National View of Low Income Older Women," LIS Working papers 398, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Ferrera, Maurizio & Hemerijck, Anton & Rhodes, Martin, 2000. "Recasting European Welfare States for the 21st Century," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 427-446, July.
    6. White, Stuart, 2003. "The Civic Minimum: On the Rights and Obligations of Economic Citizenship," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198295051, Decembrie.
    7. Walter Korpi, 2000. "Faces of Inequality: Gender, Class and Patterns of Inequalities in Different Types of Welfare States," LIS Working papers 224, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    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. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Laurie C. Maldonado, 2017. "Single-Parent Families and In-Work Poverty," LIS Working papers 687, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Svenja Gärtner, 2013. "German Stagnation vs. Swedish Progression: Gender Wage Gaps in Comparison, 1960-2006," LIS Working papers 586, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Julie Vinck & Idunn Brekke, 2019. "Gender and education inequalities in parental employment when having a young child with increased care needs: Belgium and Norway compared," Working Papers 1904, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    4. Mahmud Rice, James & Goodin, Robert E. & Parpo, Antti, 2006. "The Temporal Welfare State: A Crossnational Comparison," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 195-228, December.
    5. Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Anna Matysiak, 2016. "The Causal Effects of the Number of Children on Female Employment - Do European Institutional and Gender Conditions Matter?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 343-367, September.
    6. Duvander, Ann-Zofie & Ferrarini, Tommy & Thalberg, Sara, 2005. "Swedish parental leave and gender equality - Achievements and reform challenges in a European perspective," Arbetsrapport 2005:11, Institute for Futures Studies.
    7. Guo, Jing & Gilbert, Neil, 2014. "Public attitudes toward government responsibility for child care: The impact of individual characteristics and welfare regimes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 82-89.
    8. Alesina, Alberto & Giuliano, Paola, 2014. "Family Ties," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 177-215, Elsevier.
    9. Sabela Siaba, & Bruno Casal & Berta Rivera, 2024. "The Impact of Financial Constraints on Quality of Life and Mental Health in the Elderly: Evidence from Spain," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 249(2), pages 9-34, June.
    10. COOKE Lynn Prince, 2000. "Gender Agency at the Intersection of State, Market and Family: Changes in Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply in Eight Countries," IRISS Working Paper Series 2000-09, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    11. Andrew Lister, 2017. "Markets, desert, and reciprocity," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 16(1), pages 47-69, February.
    12. 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).
    13. Mikael Nygård & Camilla Härtull & Annika Wentjärvi & Susanne Jungerstam, 2017. "Poverty and Old Age in Scandinavia: A Problem of Gendered Injustice? Evidence from the 2010 GERDA Survey in Finland and Sweden," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 681-698, June.
    14. Marchetti, Sabrina & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Venturini, Alessandra, 2013. "Costs and Benefits of Labour Mobility between the EU and the Eastern Partnership Countries Country Study: Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 7635, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Barbara Hobson & Susanne Fahlén, 2009. "Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen's Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work—Family Balance," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 624(1), pages 214-233, July.
    16. Miroslav Beblavý, 2011. "Why has the crisis been bad for private pensions, but good for the flat tax? The sustainability of ‘neoliberal’ reforms in the new EU member states," CEPS Papers 6313, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    17. Kevin Milligan, 2008. "The Evolution of Elderly Poverty in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 34(s1), pages 79-94, November.
    18. Nadia Khamis & Luis Ayuso, 2022. "Female Breadwinner: More Egalitarian Couples? An International Comparison," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 534-545, September.
    19. Valentina Rivera & Francisca Castro, 2021. "Between Social Protests and a Global Pandemic: Working Transitions under the Economic Effects of COVID-19," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    20. Gerda Neyer & Trude Lappegård & Daniele Vignoli, 2013. "Gender Equality and Fertility: Which Equality Matters?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 245-272, August.

    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:lis:liswps:474. 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: Piotr Paradowski (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lisprlu.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.