1. Improving poverty reduction in Europe: What works best where?
- Author
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Leventi, Chrysa, Sutherland, Holly, and Tasseva, Iva Valentinova
- Subjects
POVERTY reduction ,BUDGET ,CHILD welfare ,INCOME ,UNEMPLOYMENT insurance ,MATHEMATICAL models ,POLICY sciences ,PUBLIC welfare ,RESEARCH funding ,TAXATION ,THEORY ,GOVERNMENT policy ,DATA analysis software - Abstract
This article examines how income poverty is affected by changes to the scale of tax-benefit policies and which are the most cost-effective policies in reducing poverty or limiting its increase in seven diverse EU countries. We do that by measuring the implications of increasing/reducing the scale of each policy instrument, using microsimulation methods while holding constant the policy design and national context. We consider commonly applied policy instruments with a direct effect on household income: child benefits, social assistance, income tax lower thresholds and a benchmark case of rescaling the whole tax-benefit system. We find that the assessment of the most cost-effective instrument may depend on the measure of poverty used and the direction and scale of the change. Nevertheless, our results indicate that the options that reduce poverty most cost-effectively in most countries are increasing child benefits and social assistance, while reducing the former is a particularly poverty-increasing way of making budgetary cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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