Beginning with the 1996 federal welfare reform law many of the central safety net programs in the U.S. eliminated eligibility for legal immigrants, who had been previously eligible on the same terms as citizens. These dramatic cutbacks affected eligibility not only for cash welfare assistance...

The article empirically analyses the phenomenon of vulnerability to poverty – meant as an individual’s likelihood of becoming poor in the future. On the basis of studies conducted by the Italian Institute of Statistics on the consumption of Italian households in the years 1985-2001 and whose...

This paper examines disparities by social group in educational and economic indicators in India and looks for inter-state variations in these. Data from the 1994 NCAER-HDI survey in rural India reveals that differentials in enrolment persist in most cases even when controlled for parental...

Taxes and transfers reduce inequality in disposable income relative to market income. The effect varies, however, across OECD countries. The redistributive impact of taxes and transfers depends on the size, mix and the progressivity of each component. Some countries with a relatively small tax...

The Brazilian economy grew by 4.2 percent annually from 2004-2010, more than double its annual growth from 1999-2003 or indeed its growth rate over the prior quarter century. This growth was accompanied by a significant reduction in poverty and extreme poverty, especially after 2005, as well as...

The extent of social expenditures in the U.S. and the Nordic Countries is compared in the early 1900s and again in the early 2000s. The common view that America spends much less on social welfare than the Nordic countries does not survive closer inspection when we consider the differences in the...

The relation between growth, inequality and poverty is the central theme of the paper. While the fast economic growth under the neo-liberal policy regime helps reduce poverty, it increases inequality in income distribution in a way that retards the progress in poverty-reduction. The empirical...

This document analyses the evolution of the population coverage and investment of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes, which are poverty reduction initiatives, in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 20 years. The analysis is based on up-to-date, detailed...

This paper gives content to the idea of a minimum income as reflected in ILO conventions and recommendations. We also aim to provide some practical guidance as to how such minima can best be operationalized. The practical purpose of this analysis is to define a reference income level that...

The Origins of Happiness makes some valuable contributions to the subjective well-being literature. Of particular note is its emphasis on mental health and criminality, and its use of a life course approach. However, the objective of the book is to explicate the causes of well-being in general...