In-work poverty and social assistance in developing countries

Barrientos, Armando; Unnikrishnan, Vidhya

doi:10.4337/9781784715632.00029

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The analyses also incorporate a set of potential confounders, chosen based on their prevalence in previous studies on the determinants of child poverty, and calculated based on information in the LIS data files. These indicators reflect previous findings that child poverty tend to be higher in households with more children, among those living in rural areas, in single-parent households, and when adults are not employed (Barrientos and Unnikrishnan, 2018; Gornick and Nell, 2018). Conversely, children living in multi-generational households typically have a lower risk of poverty.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Also studies looking specifically at child poverty in LMICs have demonstrated that social assistance schemes targeting children in poor households, if well designed and well implemented, are effective in reducing poverty among children (Barrientos and DeJong, 2006;Fiszbein and Schady, 2009). Also, by not conditioning receipt of cash transfers on being out of work, benefits can be relevant for reducing in-work poverty as transfers can be used to top-up low and irregular earnings (Barrientos and Unnikrishnan, 2018).…”

Section: Government Transfers and Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also with regard to low- and middle-income countries, gender equity is associated with lower child deprivation (Ekbrand and Halleröd, 2018). To the extent that social assistance programmes in LMICs also include subsidies meant to facilitate the use of services complementary to work, such as schooling and childcare, cash transfers in LMICs could also contribute to support maternal employment, thereby reducing child poverty even further (Barrientos and Unnikrishnan, 2018).…”

Section: Economic Growth Government Transfers and Child Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cash transfer schemes might accordingly contribute to make growth episodes more ‘pro-poor’ as low-income households are integrated into labour markets on more favourable terms. Also, the possibility to combine income from transfers with earnings (Barrientos and Unnikrishnan, 2018) could be another mechanism whereby the combination of growth and transfers promotes poverty reduction.…”

Section: Economic Growth Government Transfers and Child Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

When growth is not enough: Do government transfers moderate the effect of economic growth on absolute and relative child poverty?

Sirén

2023

Global Social Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Economic growth is commonly seen as the main driver of poverty reduction in a global perspective, but its impact varies substantially across cases. Meanwhile, the literature has been relatively silent regarding the role of social policy in explaining this variation. In light of an emerging attention to redistribution and social protection in promoting inclusive growth, this article analyses how government cash transfer systems moderate the effect of economic growth on both relative and absolute child poverty across low- and middle-income countries. The empirical analyses compare trends within 16 countries, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), by means of descriptive analyses and multivariate regression techniques. Findings show that both economic growth and the expansion of government transfer schemes were associated with falling absolute child poverty rates. While the association between growth and relative child poverty was on average more muted, the analyses found growth to be related to reductions in relative child poverty when combined with sufficiently extensive government transfers, while the opposite effect was found in the face of inadequate levels of transfers. The study provides a framework for studying interrelated effects of national institutions and economic processes, with the findings highlighting the fruitfulness of including indicators on social protection policies when inquiring about enabling conditions for inclusive growth in a development context.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Government Transfers and Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Economic Growth Government Transfers and Child Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Economic Growth Government Transfers and Child Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

When growth is not enough: Do government transfers moderate the effect of economic growth on absolute and relative child poverty?

Sirén

2023

Global Social Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Earlier research has shown that their precarious situations are frequently connected with limited skills, language shortcomings, discrimination, lacking a network, years since immigration and country of origin (Crettaz, 2018). The interest of in-work poverty have expanded to include studies of the development in high-, middle- and low-income countries (Barrientos and Unnikrishnan, 2018; Maurizio, 2018; Lilenstein et al ., 2018; Yeh and Lue, 2018). There is, nowadays, a large international debate about in-work poverty and whether low-paying jobs are stepping stones or poverty traps (see, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is counted as in-work poor? Testing five different definitions when measuring in-work poverty in Sweden 1987–2017

Jansson

Broström

2020

IJSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThere is ongoing debate amongst in-work poverty researchers as to how to answer the question “who is counted as in-work poor?” and how to define the minimum size of work that should be used to determine a “working threshold”. The purpose of this paper aims to contribute to this debate by testing five different definitions of a “working threshold” and discussing their implications when testing the different measurement outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), including the total population registered as living in Sweden for each year from 1987 to 2017. All calculations are on a yearly basis and in fixed prices (2017). The data set used is based on linked administrative data retrieved from Statistics Sweden and the software used is SAS 9.4.FindingsResults show how in-work poverty trends differ by measurement approach. The two definitions with the lowest income thresholds are found to include a very heterogenic group of individuals. The development of in-work poverty in Sweden over 30 years show decreasing in-work poverty during the first decade followed by an increase to almost the same levels at the end of the period. In-work poverty in Sweden has transformed from being female-dominated in 1987 and the typical person in in-work poverty 2017 is a male immigrant, aged 26–55 years.Practical implicationsThis methodological discussion might lead to a new definition of who is a worker amongst the in-work poor, which could consequently affect who is counted as being in in-work poverty and lead to new social policy measures.Originality/valueThis is, to the authors' knowledge, the first time different definitions of work requirement used to define in-work poverty have been tested on a data set including the total population and over a period of 30 years.

show abstract

Conceptualising the Relationship Between Formal and Informal Social Protection

Mumtaz

2023

Social Policy and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To date, practical and scholarly work on the interaction between formal and informal social protection has focused on crowding in and crowding out of informal social protection by formal social protection. However, little is known about the relationship between both forms of social protection in conditions where one form of social protection is more effective than the other, or both forms of social protection are effective and ineffective. This article empirically examines how both forms of social protection interact and conceptualises this relation under these conditions by drawing on ninety semi-structured interviews with households across fourteen cities in Pakistan. The study theorises the interaction of formal and informal social protection in five different ways. Based on this, the article argues for further research to explore the relationship between formal and informal social protection in different contexts for building scholarship and policy interventions to improve the lives of the vulnerable.

show abstract

In-work poverty and social assistance in developing countries

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

When growth is not enough: Do government transfers moderate the effect of economic growth on absolute and relative child poverty?

When growth is not enough: Do government transfers moderate the effect of economic growth on absolute and relative child poverty?

Who is counted as in-work poor? Testing five different definitions when measuring in-work poverty in Sweden 1987–2017

Conceptualising the Relationship Between Formal and Informal Social Protection

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About