Empirical Poverty Research in a Comparative Perspective

To Claim or Not to Claim: Estimating Non-Take-Up of Social Assistance in Germany and the Role of Measurement Error

Relevance. German social policy solutions became an example for imitation for other countries, including Russia, and are usually considered to be a standard due to their coverage and efficiency. Studying the German experience is valuable for development of the political science and for reforming the social policy systems. Purpose – to describe the origins and implementation of the social state in Germany. Objectives: to present the development and functioning of the pension and medical insurance systems, unem-ployment insurance and measures of the public social support. Methodology: comparative and historical approach, analysis of legal documents and institutions. Results. The foundations of the social assistance in Germany were created in the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century, with introduction of programs of insurance funding for medical expenses and old-age and disability pensions, followed by unemployment insurance. The system operates for more than a century and effectively accomplishes the task of risk pooling, and it mainly relies on self-government. In the second half of the XX century the law that regulated the social assistance in Germany was extended significantly, the burden on the budget increased, as well as size of the insurance contributions. Citizens obtained the right for family benefits, the role of the housing benefits, unemployment and low-income support was increased. In the end of the XX century Germany introduced insurance to fund the long-term care. Conclusion. A developed system of social support exists in Germany, it relies on centuries-old traditions of local and corporative mutual help, with coordination and subsidies coming from the federal centre. The most powerful elements of the German social policy, which secure its’ efficiency, are historically established self-government and soli-darity

Theoretical Definition and Empirical Measurement of Welfare and Poverty: A Microeconomic Approach

Although there is a growing awareness for the need to take a multi-dimensional approach to the measurement of poverty, most of the research on poverty in rich countries still relies mainly on a traditional income- or expenditures-based approach. This is also the case in Israel where only a few studies have taken a look at other aspects of poverty such as social exclusion. The goal of this chapter is to measure the extent of social exclusion in Israel and compare the results obtained with those derived from a traditional income-based approach to poverty measurement. Also, an analysis of risk factors for social exclusion in Israel is presented. The empirical analysis is based on the first round of the European Social Survey- 2002, a database which provides several indicators of social exclusion. These indicators are aggregated into a single score, which is a weighted average of the various elementary indicators. The measure of social exclusion of the individuals in the survey is then compared with their income data from the survey, and linked to various factors assumed to have an impact on income poverty and social exclusion. The results, as might have been expected, do not show a strong correlation between income poverty and social exclusion. Still, known risk factors for poverty such as a low level of education, young age, poor health, cultural and religious sectors, and female gender have a strong impact on social exclusion. A cluster analysis reveals the existence of three subgroups in Israel which could be labeled as “rich”, “middle class”, and “poor”. While there is a significant income gap between the “rich” and the other two clusters, when looking at social exclusion the main gap is between the “poor” and the other two clusters. These findings seem to confirm that social exclusion in Israel is a distinct phenomenon that deserves to be measured and addressed in addition to traditional poverty.

This paper explores the problem of effective taxation at the lower end of the income scale in Germany. For the recipients of social income maintenance--currently about 1.8 million nationals--effective taxation consists not only of the explicit taxation through the tax code but also of the implicit taxation through the withdrawal of benefits. The paper calculates effective tax rates for recipients of social assistance; it is shown that for labor incomes in the lower income range explicit and implicit taxation add up to a marginal burden of just under 75 percent on average. The 1996 tax reform alleviates the explicit tax burden on low incomes, but it does not alleviate the total marginal burden on labor earnings of welfare recipients. It increases net incomes, but since the withdrawal of benefits increases with net incomes, too, the overall burden remains practically unchanged. Therefore, effective welfare traps remain prevalent; these could only be avoided through a reform of the system of social assistance and withdrawal. Constraints and possible steps for reform are discussed.

Basierend auf den Mikro-Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels untersuchen wir Ausmaß und Struktur der Nichtinanspruchnahme von Sozialhilfe (Hilfe zum Lebensunterhalt) in Deutschland. Die Schätzung einer Nichtinanspruchnahmequote ("Dunkelziffer") fällt mit über 60 Prozent erwartungsgemäß höher aus als für die Höhe der nicht in Anspruch genommenen Sozialhilfebeträge. Angesichts der hohen Wahrscheinlichkeit von Messfehlern sowohl in den faktisch erhobenen Einkommensdaten als auch bei der Simulation des Bedarfseinkommens, bieten wir eine Reihe von Schätzungswerten und somit nützliche Sensitivitätsanalysen für die Nichtinanspruchnahmequote an. Es wird deutlich, wie stark die Berechnung der Inanspruchnahmequote mit der Bestimmung der Inanspruchnahmeberechtigung variiert. Multivariate Analysen offenbaren deutliche Unterschiede für verschiedene Bevölkerungsgruppen und zudem signifikante Einflüße von Indikatoren zur Messung von Stigma, Kosten der Antragstellung und insbesondere sozialen Bindungen.

Research income income poverty. is on below financial Income that disadvantage of poverty a designated is defined in Australia poverty as living line. has in focused a However, household mainly income whose on income poverty. Income poverty is defined as living in a household whose income is bel w th f a esignated p erty line. Ho ev r, n om poverty may provide only a limited understanding of financial disadvantage. Concepts such as subjective poverty, expenditure poverty, deprivation and financial stress are designed to overcome perceived inadequacies in the concept of income poverty. A major point of the submission by the Department of Family and Community Services (DFCS, 2003 :xi) to the Senate (2004:xvii, 18-20) inquiry into poverty was that financial disadvantage was too narrowly defined by income. Deprivation and financial stress are measures of households' financial situation that may complement income poverty (McColl, Pietsch and Gatenby, 2001). Saunders (1996) pointed out that income is at best an imperfect indicator of living standards. Travers and Richardson (1993) argued that financial disadvantage is better measured by several indicators, such as deprivation and financial stress, as well as income. Therefore, there is an implicit assumption that the different indicators are tapping the same underlying concept of poverty or financial disadvantage, but all do so imperfectly. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of financial disadvantage by analysing several of its indicators in addition to the commonly used measure, before-housing income poverty. The additional indicators are afterhousing income poverty, subjective poverty and financial stress. The paper examines the extent of financial disadvantage in Australia according to these four indicators, mobility in and out of financial disadvantage, and the interrelationships between indicators. The relationships between the indicators and a range of demographic, sociological and economic factors are also examined. Before-housing Income poverty is defined as living in a household with disposable income, after adjusting for household composition, below a designated poverty line. After-housing measures adjust household disposable income and thus the designated poverty line for housing costs. Subjective poverty is defined as judging one's level of prosperity as 'poor' or 'very poor'. Individuals and households in financial stress are not coping financially; they have difficulty in meeting their financial obligations and may seek financial assistance from others. Income poverty, subjective poverty and financial stress are by no means the only indicators of financial disadvantage. Other indicators include expenditure poverty which, similar to income poverty, is defined as expenditure levels less than a designated level (DFCS, 2003:92; Saunders, 1997; Saunders, 1998); relative deprivation, defined as the 'enforced lack of perceived social necessities

Advocacy for protection is one of the great roles of the special procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council. This chapter presents several examples of advocacy for protection. The normative recommendations of special procedures mandate holders contain numerous suggestions for the development of legal standards nationally, regionally, and internationally. A good example of this is the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. In some countries however, especially those which were relatively developed and might not have the severe problem of either income poverty or human development poverty, the group suffering from social exclusion might dominate the set of extremely poor people, supplemented by conditions of income and human development poverty to the extent that they existed. The international community and all member States should thus take up the obligations for removing extreme poverty as a core element of their human rights obligations.Keywords: advocacy for protection; extreme poverty; human rights council; human rights obligations; legal standards; right to adequate housing; special procedures mandate-holders

Relative deprivation, social exclusion, and quality of life among Chinese internal migrants

This paper is one of the first attempts in Japan to define and measure the extent of poverty and social exclusion in the country. It makes use of data from a 2006 survey of 600 households which was carefully designed to capture incidents of different dimensions of poverty and social exclusion, such as income poverty, material deprivation, exclusion from public services, lack of social relations, inadequate housing, lack of activities and subjective poverty. The paper's main findings can be summarized as follows. First, sections of the population which are most vulnerable to social exclusion are not necessarily vulnerable in terms of income poverty. Second, disadvantages at earlier stages of life seem to exert influence on some aspects of current social exclusion, even after controlling for current income, occupation and household type. One of the most interesting results of the analysis is that the variable indicating poverty at age 15 has a positive and significant effect on one's current lack of basic needs (food, clothing and medical care), even after controlling for current income, age, sex, household type and experiences of divorce and layoff. This indicates that poverty during childhood not only influences adult well-being via education and occupation (and thus, income) but there is also a path which connects childhood poverty and adult social exclusion directly.

India’s rapid economic expansion over the past three decades has positioned the country among the world’s fastest-growing economies. However, this growth has been spatially and socially uneven, producing sharp disparities across regions, income groups, occupations, and social categories. While economic inequality has been extensively studied in terms of income distribution, employment, and poverty, its psychological and mental health consequences remain underexplored. Unequal growth not only shapes material living conditions but also influences psychosocial well-being through insecurity, relative deprivation, social exclusion, and chronic stress. This study develops a conceptual framework integrating economic and psychological perspectives to examine how development disparities affect mental health outcomes in India. Drawing on theories of economic inequality, relative deprivation, stress psychology, and social comparison, the paper highlights the pathways through which uneven development translates into anxiety, depression, distress, and reduced life satisfaction. The study emphasizes regional inequality, labour market informality, urban–rural divides, and access to public services as critical mediating factors. The framework offers implications for inclusive growth strategies, mental health policy, and regional development planning, arguing that economic growth divorced from equity can undermine human well-being and long-term social stability.

This paper focuses on the mismatch between income and deprivation measures of poverty. Using the first two waves of the European Community Household Panel Survey, a measure of relative deprivation is constructed and the overlap between the relative income poor and relatively deprived is examined. There is very limited overlap with the lowest relative income threshold. The overlap increases as the income threshold is raised, but it remains true that less than half those below the 60 percent relative income line are among the most deprived. Relative deprivation is shown to be related to the persistence of income poverty, but also to a range of other resource and need factors. Income and deprivation measures each contain information that can profitably be employed to enhance our understanding of poverty and a range of other social phenomena. This is illustrated by the manner in which both income poverty and relative deprivation are associated with self‐reported difficulty making ends meet.

This chapter provides a test of the hypotheses on impoverishment and social exclusion. In 1995, with the publication of the Dutch government’s report on poverty and social exclusion, both concepts have found their way in the political debate. The concept of impoverishment may be used to denote the process leading to income poverty, while the concept of social exclusion can be used to refer to a process bringing about a situation called relative deprivation. While the results on the stability of income poverty and relative deprivation are largely based on the log-linear analysis of transition tables, structural models were used to analyze the interrelationship of impoverishment and social exclusion. The survey data used for Belgium are from the Socio-Economic Panel and were collected by the Centre for Social Policy in Antwerp. In Belgium, poverty appears to have increased slightly according to the European poverty line, but to have diminished according to the other poverty lines.

388 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 on the adoption of arbitrary,subjective thresholds for which no sensitivity analysisappears to have been carried out and presents statisticaldifferentials without commenting on their statistical significance. For a study so ready to dismisswhat it (wrongly)terms 'theoreticaleconomistic models' (p. 47)it is all too ready to attempt to shadow the methods of that discipline. I would much rather have seen more of the illuminatingand absorbingethnographic vignetteswhich do much to shed light on the notion of 'survival'and suggest that it may be survival that straddles the concepts of poverty and social exclusion. Such insight is essential to inform interdisciplinary studies of well-being. Chapter four provides a useful historical account of the evolution of the term 'social exclusion' though there is no attempt, until the final page, to relate that to the transitionprocess. This mantle is taken on in chapter five, which is also left with the more challenging problem of delineating between social exclusion and poverty. The attempt to do the latter is laudable though undermined through our knowledge that, by construction, all of the social exclusion indicatorsare associatedwith poverty, and that the entire sample is 'poor' and thereforeit is not possibleto distinguishcause and effect.Thus the effortsto realize their conceptual distinctionempiricallyis criticallyfloored. It is only on reachingthe finalfew pages of chapterfive, in discussionof the issue of 'old' and 'new poor' in Russia, that one startsto feel convinced that social exclusion and poverty could have been successfullydistinguishedas concepts. It is a shame that more was not made, and earlier,of this theme. The final part of the book, concerning ethnic, cultural and gender based experiences, offers up fascinating and thought provoking insights into the evolution of well-beingin Russia and if followedby a thoroughreadingof the detailed ethnographic vignettes, incorporated in appendix two, one cannot but be engaged. The book shouldbe of interestto anyone concerned by the ongoing affects of transitionon the peoples of EasternEurope and the former Soviet Union. It should also provide a useful reference point for scholars concerned with the concept and measurement of poverty and social exclusion and beyond that any readerwith an interestin the region cannot fail to find somethingof interestin the rich ethnographicstoriesfound within. School of Slavonic andEastEuropean Studies C. J. GERRY University College London Wegren, Stephen K. (ed.). RuralAdaptation in Russia.The Libraryof Peasant Studies, 22. Routledge, London and New York, 2005. 237 pp. Tables. Figures. Bibliography.Index. ?6o.oo. THIS is a collection of articles on rural reform in Russia, Ukraine and the USSR, first published in the Journalof PeasantStudies,April-July 2004. Its unifying theme is the way peasants and farms have adapted to the varying policies emanating from the capital in the past hundred years. The editor's REVIEWS 389 introductorychapteris followedby two historicalchapters.David Macey provides yet another surveyof the Stolypinreform.His chapter,which displaysa solidknowledgeof the literatureon this controversialsubject,arguesforcefully that the Stolypin reform should be considered a success. Mark Tauger discusses peasant responses in the I930S to collectivization. He argues strongly againstthe currentlyfashionable'resistanceinterpretation'.He considersthat collectivization should be seen as a policy to increase food production in a countryprone to famines,and thatpeasantresponsesto it were variedand not exclusivelyto be characterizedas 'resistance'.His sourcecriticismof the use of OGPU documents by adherentsof the 'resistanceinterpretation'is spot on. As far as contemporary Russia is concerned, David O'Brien, Valeri Patsiorkovskiand Stephen Wegren contribute a chapter on rural poverty, based on a 200I survey.This shows a very sharpincreasein both poverty and inequality in 199I-95, followedby a declinein bothin I995-2001, andsignificant fluctuationsin both in I997-200I. Povertywas higher in ruralareas than in urbanones. It was concentratedin householdswith children.The phenomenon of the working poor was widespread. It is left unclear whether or not these last two phenomena were an artefactcreated by measuringper capita income rather than using equivalence scales. This chapter makes clear the importanceof pensions for the welfareof their recipientsand the effectiveness of the Russian pension system in maintaining the living standards of the elderly. Jessica Allina-Pisanois the author of a very interestingsociologicalchapter on the originsof privatefarmersin Russiaand Ukraine.This is based on fieldwork in two black earth regions, Voronezh region in Russia and Kharkiv region in Ukraine. She argues that...

Poverty is rather high in contemporary Russia: every eighth Russian was poor according to the official statistics in 2018. Fighting poverty is among the top strategic development goals for the period till 2024. The paper studies gender disparities in poverty among Russian adults. Better understanding of gender structure of poverty in Russia would facilitate poverty reduction via better targeting and better tailoring of policy instruments. We utilize micro data of the Survey of income and social program participation by Rosstat as of 2017 for our statistical analysis. Two alternative poverty concepts are used: absolute income poverty (the official methodology of poverty measurement in Russia) and poverty risk and social exclusion index (the key component of poverty monitoring indicator in the EU). The latter index is a composition of relative poverty and deprivation poverty measures. Our results indicate that, on average, there is no gender poverty gap in Russia when absolute poverty concept is used: poverty rates among males and females are the same on average. Hence, we find no statistical support to the widely used by the media thesis of poverty feminization in Russia. Absolute poverty rate, however, is found to vary significantly across different gender-age groups: absolute income poverty among females is higher than among males in young and senior ages, while males are poorer in mid-age groups. When multiple criteria definition of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) is applied, we find clear signs of feminization of poverty in Russia. Multidimensional poverty is much higher among females, and this is observed in all age groups. The highest gender poverty gap is observed in senior ages. The age-gender poverty structure changes dramatically when we move from absolute poverty concept to the multidimensional one: we observe higher share of females in poverty, and higher share of senior people in poverty. The key determinants of higher multidimensional poverty of females is their relatively (to males) lower wages, and relatively lower pensions.