Unravelling the relationship between employment, social transfers and income poverty
Policy and measurement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12256261 |
|---|---|
| Authors | András Gábos (0000-0002-9521-8162, TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Hungary, corresponding author), Barbara Binder (0000-0001-8258-1627, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), Réka Branyiczki (0000-0002-2793-0940, TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Hungary; Central European University, Austria), István György Tóth (0000-0001-6694-3026, TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Hungary) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 289-308 |
| Publication date | 2024-02-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of European Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0958-9287 • E-ISSN: 1461-7269 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09589287241232272 |
| OpenAlex | W4392287585 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 31 |
Despite the rise in employment, consistently high EU-average poverty rates continue to generate debates about the factors that explain the level and changes in the relative poverty rate, both within and across countries. Assuming a strong negative correlation between poverty and employment, the article investigates the role of four mechanisms responsible for this blurred relationship. Using decomposition analysis and macro-level regression analysis, we investigate the extent to which (i) the distribution of employment across households with different levels of work intensity, (ii) the expansion of non-standard work, (iii) the change in the effectiveness of social welfare systems, and (iv) the change in median income and the corresponding shift in the poverty threshold have contributed to changes in relative income poverty in the last decades. We found that employment growth benefits poverty reduction, but this positive effect was partially offset by the precarious characteristics of some newly created jobs. If the distribution of jobs had favoured the jobless more in the pre-crisis period, the relative income poverty rate would have been lower. Although the share of persons in jobless households decreased during the recovery years, their risk of poverty increased due to the retrenchment of social transfers during and after the Great Recession. Furthermore, the use of a floating threshold, which is linked to changes in median income, underestimates the strength of the relationships between poverty, employment and social transfers: when the poverty threshold is kept fixed, not only do the dynamics of poverty look different, but the estimated coefficients are considerably larger
Demographic economics · Distribution (mathematics · Economic growth · Economics · Income distribution · Inequality · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Political science · Poverty · Recession · Retrenchment · Welfare · Welfare state · Employment and Welfare Studies · Global Health Care Issues · Income, Poverty, and Inequality
Decent Incomes for All
Rising Income Inequality
Origin and Genesis of Activation Policies in ‘Old’ Europe
Reconciling Work and Poverty Reduction
Crisis, structural reform and the dismantling of the European Social Model(s)
Poverty and Social Rights Among the Working Age Population in Post-Industrial Democracies
A state-of-the-art review of working poverty in advanced economies
Social income transfers and poverty
Changing labour market risks in the service economy
Stemming the tide
In-work poverty and labour market trajectories
The paradox of the social investment state
What a social investment ‘litmus test’ must address
Disappointing poverty trends
Can higher employment levels bring down relative income poverty in the EU? Regression-based simulations of the Europe 2020 target
A new poverty indicator for Europe
A glass ceiling on poverty reduction? An empirical investigation into the structural constraints on minimum income protections
The social investment litmus test
Second Earners and In-Work Poverty in Europe
Social investment as a policy paradigm
A rising workfare state? Unemployment benefit conditionality in 21 OECD countries, 1980–2012
Determinants of Relative Poverty in Advanced Capitalist Democracies
Which Roads (if any) to Social Investment? The Recalibration of EU Welfare States at the Crisis Crossroads (2000-2014)
Poverty Transitions and Trigger Events across EU Groups of Countries
Why is it So Hard to Reach the EU's Poverty Target
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |