To assess the impact of tax-benefit policy changes on income distribution over time, we suggest a methodology based on counterfactual simulations. We start by decomposing changes in inequality/poverty indices into three contributions: reforms of the tax-benefit structure (rules, rates, etc.),...

In this chapter, we investigate the effects of vulnerability on income and employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia using a unique 2004 UNDP dataset. Treating the collapse of the former Yugoslavia as a natural experiment, we compare three groups that have been...

This book analyses how Calon Gypsies in Brazil have responded to global financial transformations and shifted their economic practices from itinerant trade to moneylending. It also explores their role as ethnic credit providers, offering rare insight into the financial lives of poor and...

We study the effect of residential segregation on fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between ethnically homogeneous and mixed neighbor- hoods. Our results show that...

This paper tests for discriminatory treatment of the Roma minority by public officials in the Czech Republic at the stage of initial contact preceding a potential application for unemployment benefit. Our correspondence experiment facilitates testing for the presence of each of two intertwined...

Glaubt man dem neuesten Armutsbericht der Bundesregierung, sind 13% der Bevölkerung in Deutschland armutsgefährdet. Sind die derzeit aus den Medien zu hörenden Alarmrufe angebracht, oder leidet die öffentliche Diskussion unter einer Begriffsverwirrung und wird durch ein statistisches...

Overall growth rates mean different things to different people. Hence, they can easily misrepresent what happens to living standards and "quality of life". This paper focuses on patterns and interrelationships between the size and the distribution of the dividends of growth, not on summary...

Credit affects individuals’ perceptions and experiences of inequality. Having access to credit enables those in lower- and middle-income groups to consume an array of products and services that they otherwise would not be able to afford, thereby taking the edge off discontent. Citizens with...