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...

As unemployment rises across the European Union (EU) it is important to understand the extent to which the incomes of the new unemployed are protected by tax-benefit systems and to assess the cost pressures on the social protection systems of this increase in unemployment. This paper uses the EU...

This paper analyses the extent to which tax-benefit systems provide an automatic stabilisation of income for those who became unemployed at the onset of the Great Recession. The focus of the analysis is on the compensation for earnings lost due to unemployment which is channelled through the...

Static microsimulation models are based on household micro-data and are designed to estimate the revenue cost and distributional and incentive effects of tax and benefit policy changes. They are invaluable for the design and evaluation of policy reforms. Static models allow us to hold constant...

In the first empirical study on how financial reforms have been instrumental in mitigating inequality through financial sector competition, we contribute at the same time to the macroeconomic literature on measuring financial development and respond to the growing field of economic development...

The paper estimates an earnings frontier by the method of Corrected Ordinary Least Squares (COLS) and categorizes households as efficient or inefficient based on some benchmark efficiency score and the estimated frontier. The spatial distribution of the poor and non poor households is then...

The paper proposes a simple framework for the evaluation of anti-poverty programs based on single means differences, FGT poverty measures and stochastic dominance theory. A Treatment Effect Curve (TEC) is derived and its use illustrated with simulated data.

The impact of trade openness on poverty has been in the limelight for a few decades now, since most developing countries relaxed their trade regimes. Poverty has always been a central issue for developing countries mainly because of their large vulnerable populations. In this paper, a panel of...

The paper proposes a simple framework for the evaluation of anti-poverty programs based on single means differences, FGT poverty measures and stochastic dominance theory. A Treatment Effect Curve (TEC) is derived and its use illustrated with simulated data.