Search results for "Poverty"
showing 10 items of 492 documents
Implementing a Negative Income Tax. Net Cost, Poverty and Inequality Effects
2019
The main aim of this paper is to propose a financially viable alternative to the current Spanish system of social protection: A Negative Income Tax (NIT) unifying in a single mechanism the system of public benefits and income tax. We analyse the main characteristics of the NIT and simulate several NIT proposals for Spain, using the Living Conditions Survey. These proposals are distinct in that they do not suppose an additional cost in the tax-benefit system. The results of our simulations indicate a radical improvement in the indicators of poverty and inequality, especially extreme poverty, and also a redistribution of income from the elderly to families with children.
Do microfinance institutions benefit from integrating financial and nonfinancial services?
2017
This article examines the impact of microfinance ‘plus’ (i.e. coordinated combination of financial and nonfinancial services) on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Using a global data set of MFIs in 77 countries, we find that the provision of nonfinancial services does not harm nor improve MFIs’ financial sustainability and efficiency. The results however suggest that the provision of social services is associated with improved loan quality and greater depth of outreach.
Development of capabilities from the innovation of the perspective of poverty and disability
2017
Abstract Poverty is a reality that is present to a greater or lesser extent in all regions of the world. Disability, like poverty, is also a reality in the society in which we live. Disability is not only a reality, but an inescapable truth, as at some point in life all people will be vulnerable and will exhibit some form of disability. When combined, poverty and disability immerse a person in more serious circumstances. Within the concept of poverty, disability means greater poverty. Based on a correct conceptualization of what poverty and disability are, this paper aims at proposing an innovative model of accompaniment, one which starts from a complete and multidimensional vision of reali…
The importance of consecutive spells of poverty: a path-dependent index of longitudinal poverty
2011
In this paper we propose a new index of individual poverty in the longitudinal perspective, taking into account the way poverty and non-poverty spells follow one another along individual life courses. The Poverty Persistence Index (PPI) is based on all the pairwise distances between the waves of poverty. The PPI is normalized and it assigns a higher degree of (longitudinal) poverty to people who experience poverty in consecutive, rather than separated, periods, for whom the distances from the poverty line are larger along time and moreover, when the worst years are consecutive and/or recent. We also propose an aggregate index of persistence in poverty (APPI) in order to measure the distribu…
How do Banking Crises Impact on Income Inequality?
2012
We show that banking crises have an important effect on income distribution: inequality increases before banking crisis episodes and sharply declines afterwards. We also find that, while a large government size does not per se seem to reduce inequality, a rise in financial depth (i.e. better access to credit provided by the banking sector) contributes to a more equal distribution of income.
La relación causa-efecto entre exclusión/inclusión social y financiera. Una aproximación teórica
2021
La realidad social y económica actual representada en situaciones de vulnerabilidad y desigualdad ha dejado al descubierto tipos de exclusión que no estaban abordados en los diferentes estudios, como son los casos de la exclusión financiera y social, dado que tales conceptos eran comúnmente identificados en términos de pobreza, miseria o marginalidad, entre otros. Estas nuevas categorías de estudio dan lugar a la búsqueda de estrategias que permitan disminuir esa brecha de desigualdad, mediante el estudio de la relación entre la inclusión financiera y la inclusión social. En esta línea, el presente trabajo tiene como propósito desarrollar una aproximación teórica que visibilice la relación …
Does one size fit all? The impact of cognitive skills on economic growth
2016
Les Documents de Travail de l'IREDU, n°2016-1; This paper tests for heterogeneous effects of cognitive skills on economic growth across countries. Using a new extended dataset on cognitive skills and controlling for potential endogeneity, we find that the magnitude of the effect is about 60 per cent higher for low-income countries compared to high-income countries, and it more than doubles when low TFP countries are compared to high TFP countries. There are also marked differences across geographic regions. Using data on the share of the population with advanced and minimum skill levels, our results also indicate that high-income countries should focus on increasing the number of high skill…
Local development through social and territorial innovation: an exploratory case study
2017
This investigation aims to examine innovation in a selected successful Portuguese social venture (The Cooperative Terra Chã) and to analyse the extent to which innovative social ventures are able to contributeto local development. Specifically, the paper highlights the activities developed by the social organization in response to the needs of particular (micro) segments of society and illustrates which key factors triggered thesuccess of the examined social initiative. A case study methodology is used to describe the distinctive characteristics and strategies pursued by the managers of the social venture and to establish the links between the opportunities for social innovation and the ter…
Fiscal adjustments, labour market flexibility and unemployment
2014
Using a panel of 17 countries for 1978-2009, we find that tax-driven consolidations increase unemployment by 0.25 percentage points. Labour market flexibility mitigates this: a one-point rise in the flexibility index reduces youth (long-term) unemployment by 0.6-0.7 (1.8-2.2) percentage points.
Wage gaps between the public and private sectors in Spain
1998
Based on data from the last household survey conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estatistica in 1990-91, we estimate separate earnings equations by sector of employment and gender, treating the choice of employment sector as endogenous. From these results we compare the wage-generating process for each subgroup and identify the returns to human capital of males and females working in the public and private sectors. We then decompose overall wage gaps by sector for each gender in order to measure the contribution of education and other personal characteristics to public-private wage differentials and to evaluate the economic surplus that public sector workers receive compared to their pri…