Decent Incomes for All

Improving Policies in Europe

Edited by Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

International Policy Exchange

Reflects upon the meaning of social progress and describes past trends in poverty and inequality in Europe.
Evaluates the impact of the economic crisis and austerity measures on poverty and inequality.
Assesses the extent to which decent incomes for the poor are/are not currently realized.
Looks at the future by reflecting upon new policy perspectives.
Develops and evaluates policy scenarios that contribute to meeting the European Commission's 2020 social inclusion target.

Decent Incomes for All

Improving Policies in Europe

Edited by Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

Description

In 2000, the first social agenda in the history of the European Union was launched, and the endeavor to combat poverty came increasingly to the forefront as a specific area for EU policy cooperation and coordination. Regrettably, however, little progress has been achieved so far, either at the national or European level. On the contrary, the EU's social fabric is under major stress: convergence in national living standards has halted or reversed while progress in terms of poverty reduction in the last decades has been disappointing in most EU Member States. In Europe, despite high social spending and work-related welfare reforms, poverty often remains a largely intractable problem for policymakers and a persistent reality for many European citizens.

In Decent Incomes for All, the authors shed new light on recent poverty trends in the European Union and the corresponding responses by European welfare states. They analyze the effect of social and fiscal policies before, during, and after the recent economic crisis and study the impact of alternative policy packages on poverty and inequality. The volume also explores how social investment and local initiatives of social innovation can contribute to tackling poverty, while recognizing that there are indeed structural constraints on the increase of the social floor and difficult trade-offs involved in reconciling work and poverty reduction. Academics and graduate students in comparative social policy, inclusion and anti-poverty policy, sociology, and public economics will find the book to be a particularly helpful resource in their work.

Decent Incomes for All

Improving Policies in Europe

Edited by Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

International Policy Exchange

Foreword: A Self-Critical Flashback on the European Union's Anti-Poverty Promise
Frank Vandenbroucke

Preface
Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

Introduction
Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

Part 1: Income Poverty in Europe: Setting the Scene

Chapter 1: What Does It Mean to Live on the Poverty Threshold? Lessons From Reference Budgets
Tim Goedemé, Tess Penne, Tine Hufkens, Alexandros Karakitsios, Anikó Bernát, Anne Franziskus, Bori Simonovits, Elena Carillo Alvarez, Eleni Kanavitsa, Irene Cussó Parcerisas, Jordi Riera Romaní, Lauri Mäkinen, Manos Matsaganis, Marco Arlotti, Marianna Kopasz, Péter Szivós, Veli-Matti Ritakallio, Yuri Kazepov, Karel Van den Bosch, and Bérénice Storms

Chapter 2: Employment and Poverty Dynamics Before, During, and After the Crisis
András Gábos, Réka Branyiczki, Barbara Binder, and István György Tóth

Chapter 3: A Pan-European Perspective on Low-Income Dynamics in the European Union
Tim Goedemé, Lorena Zardo Trindade, and Frank Vandenbroucke

Part 2: The Role of Social Protection

Chapter 4: The Impact of Social Transfers on Income Poverty and Material Deprivation
Geranda Notten and Anne-Catherine Guio

Chapter 5: Policy and Poverty in Seven European Union Countries in the Lisbon Decade: The Contribution of Tax-Benefit Policy Changes
John Hills, Alari Paulus, Holly Sutherland, and Iva Tasseva

Chapter 6: Distributive Effects of the Crisis in the European Periphery
Manos Matsaganis and Chrysa Leventi

Chapter 7: Do Employment-Conditional Earnings Subsidies Work?
Lane Kenworthy

Part 3: New Policy Paradigms: What Can Be Expected?

Chapter 8: Improving Poverty Reduction: Lessons From the Social Innovation Perspective
Stijn Oosterlynck, Andreas Novy, Yuri Kazepov, Pieter Cools, Tatiana Saruis, Bernhard Leubolt, and Florian Wukovitsch

Chapter 9: Social Investment at Crossroads: "The Third Way" or "The Enlightened Path" Forward?
Axel Cronert and Joakim Palme

Part 4: Toward a Decent Social Floor for All Europeans

Chapter 10: The End of Cheap Talk About Poverty Reduction: The Cost of Closing the Poverty Gap While Maintaining Work Incentives
Diego Collado, Bea Cantillon, Karel Van den Bosch, Tim Goedemé, and Dieter Vandelannoote

Chapter 11: The Design of In-Work Benefits: How to Boost Employment and Combat Poverty in Belgium?
Dieter Vandelannoote and Gerlinde Verbist

Chapter 12: Toward Adequate Minimum Incomes: Which Role for Europe?
Bea Cantillon, Sarah Marchal, and Chris Luigjes

Chapter 13: Conclusion: How to Get There?
Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

Decent Incomes for All

Improving Policies in Europe

Edited by Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

International Policy Exchange

Author Information

Bea Cantillon, PhD, is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy at the University of Antwerp Belgium.

Tim Goedemé, PhD, MSc, is a Research Coordinator at the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy at the University of Antwerp in Belgium and Senior Research Officer at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School and the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

John Hills, DLitt, MSocSc, is Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.

Contributors:

Bea Cantillon
Tim Goedemé
John Hills

Marco Arlotti
Anikó Bernát
Barbara Binder
Réka Branyiczki
Elena Carillo Alvarez
Diego Collado
Pieter Cools
Axel Cronert
Irene Cussó Parcerisas
Anne Franziskus
András Gábos
Anne-Catherine Guio
István György Tóth
Tine Hufkens
Eleni Kanavitsa
Alexandros Karakitsios
Yuri Kazepov
Lane Kenworthy
Marianna Kopasz
Bernhard Leubolt
Chrysa Leventi
Chris Luigjes
Lauri Mäkinen
Sarah Marchal
Manos Matsaganis
Geranda Notten
Andreas Novy
Stijn Oosterlynck
Joakim Palme
Alari Paulus
Tess Penne
Jordi Riera Romaní
Veli-Matti Ritakallio
Tatiana Saruis
Bori Simonovits
Bérénice Storms
Holly Sutherland
Péter Szivós
Iva Tasseva
Dieter Vandelannoote
Karel Van den Bosch
Frank Vandenbroucke
Gerlinde Verbist
Florian Wukovitsch

Decent Incomes for All

Improving Policies in Europe

Edited by Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills

International Policy Exchange

Reviews and Awards

"Poverty might be even more widespread--and differently distributed across countries and household types within the EU--than what appears by the usual 'at risk of poverty' indicator. Exploring different methodological approaches, this book presents a complex view of what happened where before and during the Great Recession, as well as the differential ability of individual countries to protect the poor through their policy choices. The lessons these analyses teach at the substantive and methodological level offer crucial suggestions on how progress might be achieved at the national and EU level in granting a decent income to both workers' and jobless people's households." -- Chiara Saraceno, PhD, Professor Emerita, WZB Berlin Social Science Center; honorary fellow, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin

"With European welfare states under economic pressure, policymakers have taken their eyes off the poverty reduction ball, with the inevitable result that poverty has worsened as social protection provisions have been allowed to erode. This book by some of Europe's leading social policy scholars vividly illustrates how top-quality research can highlight social issues, provide the evidence to better understand them, and point to appropriate policy responses. It is a timely reminder of the important role that a decent income safety net can play in promoting well-being and setting the social foundations for sustainable economic prosperity." --Peter Saunders, PhD, DipEcThy, Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney; President, Foundation for International Studies on Social Security