Poverty and Material Deprivation in the Crisis: Italy and Spain.

This paper assesses the impact of the economic recession caused by the global financial crisis on income poverty and deprivation in Italy and Spain to identify the most vulnerable groups and to guide policy makers. We consider the main socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of individuals impacting on their labor market status. The analysis is carried out separately for male and females to detect possible gender differences. Our results show the growth of material deprivation. Furthermore, the higher exposure of females to income poverty and material deprivation is verified in both countries despite of the efforts made to close the gender gaps in their labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]