Development of the social dimension of Europe was advanced by the Lisbon Summit in March 2000, and this paper considers the future direction of social policy. The first step towards a social agenda could take the form of benchmarking, based on national competencies in this field, with Member...

We compare the distributional effects of austerity measures that have been introduced in 6 EU countries in the period of large government budget deficits following the 2007-8 financial crisis and subsequent economic downturn. We explore the effects of policy changes presented as austerity...

Over the past 20 years, microsimulation models have come to play an important role in policy analysis, identifying gainers and losers, and characterising the effect on incentives. A natural development of national models is a Europe-wide tax benefit model. The present paper reports results from...

Due to the worsening of economic crisis across European countries, the problem of poverty and the ways to tackle it returned at the centre of political and scientific debate. The level of poverty increased after the crisis, especially in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece....

We provide evidence of the relative cost-effectiveness of different types of policy instrument in reducing poverty or limiting its increase, comparing within and between seven diverse EU countries. We do that by measuring the implications of increasing/reducing the instrument size within its...

This study aimed at analyzing the benefits derived from the use of public healthcare facilities and education in Cameroon. The specific objectives are: (i) to estimate the proportion of the budget which is really acquired by the end users of those services; (ii) to determine the equity contents...

This study examines the effect of zonal differences on the distribution of per capita expenditure in terms of polarization, inequality, and poverty in Nigeria. Data sources include the NCS 1996 and NLSS 2004, and analytical techniques used include Gini index and selected measures of...

It is argued that without collateral the poor often face binding borrowing constraints in the formal credit market. This justifies a micro-credit program, which is operated by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to provide the poor with preferential credit. This paper examines poverty targeting...

Economic and financial crisis in Benin since 1980s led the government to embark on a process of economic reforms in 1991. These reforms sought to remedy the fiscal and trade imbalances in order to accelerate economic growth. Trade policy reform was given priority. Import bans and quotas were...

This study aimed at analyzing the benefits derived from the use of public healthcare facilities and education in Cameroon. The specific objectives are: (i) to estimate the proportion of the budget which is really acquired by the end users of those services; (ii) to determine the equity contents...