While we do not mean to imply that there are insurmountable or even clear distinctions between the social sciences, we claim that economists can still provide an original analysis of class, which should be regarded as complementary to those developed by sociologists. Following the tradition of...

Recent economic literature on poverty may be broadly divided into two strands. One strand investigates the multidimensional nature of poverty. The other strand, employing the large availability of household surveys, investigates the micro and macro determinants of monetary poverty, analyzing the...

Marcella Corsi and her co-workers analyze the social and economic impact that microfinance programmes have on participant's lives, particularly on women in the Mediterranean countries. They identify the changes of the women who took part in the microcredit programme. They examine the consumption...

Marcella Corsi and Kristian Orsini analyse poverty levels in six European countries: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. They focus on child poverty, taking into account differences in demographic structure, actual redistribution policies towards younger...

Microfinance promise to serve low-income or disadvantaged beneficiaries excluded from the formal banking sector in a financially sustainable way (thus to achieve the so called “double bottom line” of financial and social performance) built excitement around the development of a global...

The Italian case can be considered as an internationally relevant example to suggest a critical reflection on the evaluation criteria adopted in research assessment exercises, pointing at the need of clear and shared guidelines based on transparency and accountability and aiming at preserving...