We propose simple graphical methods to identify poverty-reducing marginal reforms of transfer programs. The methods are based on Program Dominance curves that display cumulative program benefits weighted by powers of poverty gaps. These curves can be decomposed simply as sums of targeting...

In recent years, policymaking in China has put increasing emphasis on stemming the growth in inequality, which had been fairly steep since the 1980s. Policy action has taken the form of regional development measures and of reforms of various aspects of the social safety net broadly defined. The...

The literature on public employment policies such as the job guarantee (JG) and the employer of last resort (ELR) often emphasizes their macroeconomic stabilization effects. But carefully designed and implemented policies like these can also have profound social transformative effects. In...

A class of inequality measures that is a natural companion to the popular Lorenz curve is the class of measures that are linear in incomes. These measures, which include the Gini and S-Gini coefficients, can be interpreted as ethical means of relative deprivation feelings. Their change through...

The analysis of social policy impact over the labour market focuses on assessing the interdependence between the social protection system and the labour market, and performance of the social policies management, determinant factor in order to achieve simultaneous acceleration for social...

The paper analyses the static and dynamic risk of poverty in the enlarged European Union. In the first part of the paper an overview of cross-sectional poverty rates in 25 European Member States (apart from Romania and Bulgaria) using several indexes is presented and assessed. In the second...

The Portuguese elderly poverty rate has decreased significantly in recent years as elderly incomes have increased, and inequality and material deprivation levels have converged to their national levels. This paper investigates whether this improved situation is widespread across the elderly, but...

Cross-national studies on happiness have focused on differences in level of happiness. The focus of this paper is on spread in happiness in the nation, also called ‘inequality in happiness’. Inequality in happiness in nations can be measured by the size of the standard deviation of responses...

Oecd database on net total social expenditure 2001 to 2007 refers to both public and private (by family and business) expenditure, in order to overcome statistical issues in international comparisons due to a wide difference in welfare structures and financing. Evidence from the Oecd countries...