Documents social inequality 1 515 results

"This research note focuses specifically on poverty as it is one of the key challenges identified in the European Pillar of Social Rights and its Action Plan. It highlights recent patterns, trends, and dynamics in poverty when calculated based on income and net wealth jointly across a large set of EU countries, relying on household microdata from the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) between 2009 and 2020. It contributes to the literature in at least four distinct ways 1) It provides an up-to-date overview of the incidence and patterns of poverty based on income and net wealth for the largest set of (EU) countries ever studied in this regard, including countries that have so far not been part of the literature. 2) It consists of an in-depth discussion of poverty measures that combine information on income and net wealth, including in relation to Eurostat's experimental statistics on income, wealth, and consumption. It goes beyond previous research by analysing poverty rates as well as poverty gaps and the profile of the poor population. Furthermore, where the literature has primarily focused on those who are able to leverage income poverty through wealth holdings, here those who cannot or are poor due to negative net wealth (i.e. higher debt than assets) are given the same level of attention. 3) It assesses how poverty based on income and net wealth evolved over the most recent decade, while the literature has so far mostly focused on mapping patterns at a single moment of observation. 4) It introduces a dynamic perspective by leveraging panel data for Belgium following the same households over time to study movements in and out of poverty, calculated based on income and net wealth jointly. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time a dynamic approach has been applied to the topic of income-net wealth poverty"

"Existe-t-il un lien statistique entre les changements de situation familiale et l'accès à la formation continue ? Cet article cherche à répondre à cette question à partir d'une analyse empirique effectuée sur les enquêtes Emploi en continu de 2003 à 2012. Si les résultats montrent que les naissances sont associées à une diminution de la probabilité d'être formées pour les femmes, ils suggèrent que l'entrée des enfants dans le système scolaire constitue une opportunité permettant aux individus les plus diplômés d'accroître leur participation aux formations d'entreprise. Les mises en couple et séparations sont par ailleurs associées à des inégalités entre sexes dans l'accès aux formations : la rupture d'une union est négativement corrélée avec la probabilité de suivre une formation d'entreprise, notamment pour les femmes qui ont la garde de leurs enfants. Pour les formations proposées par un organisme de placement, majoritairement à destination des chômeurs, il semble que c'est moins la répartition de la garde des enfants que la situation professionnelle des conjoints au moment de la rupture qui importe."

"This study addresses the central question in political economy how the objectives of attaining economic growth and restricting income inequality are related. Thus far few studies explicitly distinguish between effects of income inequality as such and effects of redistributing public interventions to equalize incomes on economic growth. In fact, most studies rely on data that do not make this distinction properly and in which top-coding is applied so that enrichment at the top end of the distribution is not adequately captured. This study aims to contribute using a pooled time-series cross-section design covering 29 countries, using OECD, LIS, and World Top Income data. No robust association between inequality and growth or redistribution and growth is found. Yet there are signs for a positive association between top incomes and growth, although the coefficient is small and a causal interpretation does not seem to be warranted."

"Scholars studying democracy are just beginning to investigate the specifically political consequences of rising socio-economic inequalities. This paper analyses whether the degree of political inequality between social groups is shaped by features of the welfare capitalist system. Specifically, we hypothesize that more labour protection and social support decrease participatory inequality via more evenly distributed resources and engagement between high- and low educated citizens. Our regression analyses combining micro- and macro-level data from 37 capitalist democracies over the past 20 years provide evidence that some protective and supportive elements of welfare capitalism reduce education-based participatory inequality. Our fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis identifies three functionally equivalent types of welfare capitalism that all produce low participatory inequality via increased protection, support or both. Finally, we empirically demonstrate that the mechanisms behind this link are, indeed, a more equal distribution of resources and engagement across low- and high educated citizens."

"This article investigates the role of labor market institutions for social inequalities in employment. To distinguish institutional impacts for men and women, age groups and educational levels the analysis draws on data from 21 countries using the European Union Labor Force Survey and the Current Population Survey 1992–2012. The analysis demonstrates that there is significant heterogeneity in the relationship between institutions and employment across social groups. In line with the literature on dualization, institutions that arguably protect labor market insiders, i.e. employment protection, unionization and unemployment benefits, are frequently associated with greater inequality between typically disadvantaged groups and their insider peers. By contrast, institutions that discriminate less between insiders and outsiders, i.e. active labor market policies, minimum income benefits and centralized wage bargaining at times boost social equality on the labor market. The insider/outsider argument provides a valuable heuristic for assessing heterogeneity in institutional impacts, yet in several instances the results deviate from the expectations."

"This article considers the evolution of UK labour market policy during the last 30 years. It does this through the lens of the ‘social model'. The social model encompasses the employment relations system, the social welfare system, and the education and training system. It was changed dramatically by the Thatcher and Major governments. The succeeding Labour and Coalition governments largely embraced this new model and, in some ways, increased the pace of change. The consequences for labour market performance—employment, unemployment, productivity, and inequality—are explored."

"In various writings Karl Marx made references to an ‘aristocracy of finance' in Western Europe and the USA that dominated ownership of the public debt. Drawing on original research, this article offers the first comprehensive analysis of public debt ownership within the US corporate sector. The research shows that over the past three decades, and especially in the context of the current crisis, a new aristocracy of finance has emerged, as holdings of the public debt have become rapidly concentrated in favour of large corporations classified within Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Operationalizing Wolfgang Streeck's concept of the ‘debt state', the article goes on to demonstrate how concentration in ownership of the public debt reinforces patterns of social inequality and proceeds in tandem with a shift in government policy, one that prioritizes the interests of government bondholders over the general citizenry."

"This paper presents findings on the changing effectiveness of cash transfers and income taxes on inequality and poverty reduction in four EU countries – the UK, Italy, Sweden and France. We use long time series (spanning four decades) to examine trends within countries over time and between countries at different points in time. Recent evidence has suggested that the relationship between concentration of cash transfers and their redistributive effectiveness has become blurred over time. We find much more conclusive evidence of a negative relationship within countries over time. The results show a negative relationship between the concentration of cash transfers net of direct taxes and their effectiveness in terms of reducing poverty and inequality. The strength of the relationship varies between countries and in some cases between the all age and the working age populations. The evidence suggests that caution should be applied to relying on bivariate cross-country estimates and that more should be done to establish and verify empirical relationships within countries over time using the rich data sources that are now available. These findings re-open the debate on the most effective design of cash transfer and direct tax systems."

"Since the mid-1990s, there has been a debate about the social investment state model in advanced societies. Such an orientation towards preventive investment in education rather than redistribution (or social spending) raises the question of whether, and if so, what kinds of relationships exist between educational and economic inequalities. Based on an international comparison of 20 advanced economies, the results of the analyses suggest that the role of education as an ‘equalizer' should not be overestimated. Direct redistribution is much more likely than education to combat poverty in advanced societies. Yet increasing the mean literacy rate by reducing the proportion of low-literate adults is also positively associated with less economic inequality. Welfare states with ‘double liability'—investing in children's education and in more equal family conditions—therefore perform best in terms of economic inequality."