Tunisia was showcased for a long time as an example of poverty reduction achievement and pro-poor growth. Yet, after halving its poverty rates a revolution took the world by surprise early in 2011 and since then nothing is known about its poverty levels. To fill that gap, this analysis develops and compares multiple cross-survey imputations (using household budgetary and labor force surveys), p...

This paper reV1ews trends in income inequality and poverty over the past 15 years and offers projections of the effect that present and proposed budget changes may exert on the income distribution in the next four years. Income inequality has been increasing in the last 15 years, a fact accounted for in part by demographic change in household structure and 1n part by such labor market forces as...

In this study, a static microsimulation model SOMA is used to optimize Finland's tax-benefit legislation to alleviate poverty or at least to reduce it significantly. The method is a classical optimization method using a greed optimization strategy. This means an iterative process, where only one poverty diminishing parameter is changed by 10% from its earlier value at each iteration. Expenses a...

Most small island economies or ‘microstates’ have distinctly different characteristics from larger developing economies. They are more open and vulnerable to external and environmental shocks, resulting in high output volatility. Most of them also suffer from locational disadvantages. Although a few small island economies have succeeded in generating sustained rapid growth and reducing poverty,...

Much attention has been given to the large increases in safety net spending during the Great Recession. We examine the relationship between poverty, the safety net, and business cycles historically and test whether there has been a significant change in this relationship. We find that post–welfare reform, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families did not respond during the Great Recession and ext...

This paper estimates income gap ratios and Gini coefficients of poor Americans and combines them with official U.S. government poverty statistics to create a new time series of Sen indices of poverty. The effects of growth and other determinants of aggregate poverty are investigated over the period 1961-1996. The results indicate that economic growth affects the Sen index and official poverty h...

IN JUNE 1941, the British Government asked Sir William Beveridge to recommend changes in the existing programs for social insurance and allied services. His report, presented in November 1942, 1 outlined a social security plan for "all citizens without upper income limit—all embracing in scope of persons and needs," based on assumptions that the Government would take other measures to prevent m...

The aim of this study is to investigate the understanding of wealth, poverty, inequality and unemployment in South African Black (African) children aged 7, 9, 11 and 14 drawn from a rural, an urban and a semi-urban setting. Two hundred and twenty-®ve children (80 rural, 60 urban and 85 semi-urban) were interviewed individually in Setswana, their mother tongue. The urban children were living in ...