[en] This paper is prepared as a chapter for the Handbook of Income Distribution, Volume 2
(edited by A. B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon, Elsevier-North Holland, forthcoming). Like the
other chapters in the volume (and its predecessor), the aim is to provide a comprehensive
review of a particular area of research. The aim of this chapter is to highlight some key
aspects of recent economic research on the welfare state and anti-poverty policy in rich
countries, and explore their implications. We begin with the conceptualisation and
measurement of poverty, before sketching out some core features and approaches to the
welfare state and anti-poverty policies. We then focus on the central plank of the modern
welfare state’s efforts to address poverty, namely social protection, discussing in turn the
inactive working-age population, child income support, in-work poverty, and retirement and
old-age pensions. After that we discuss social spending on other than cash transfers: the
labour market, education, training and activation, and finally intergenerational transmission,
childhood and neighbourhoods. We also discuss the welfare state and anti-poverty policy in
the context of the economic crisis which began in 2007-8, and the implications for strategies
aimed at combining economic growth and employment with making serious inroads into
poverty. We conclude with highlighting directions for future research.
Disciplines :
Economic systems & public economics
Author, co-author :
Olivera Angulo, Javier ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Integrative Research Unit: Social and Individual Development (INSIDE)
Marx, Ive; University of Antwerp
Nolan, Brian; University of Oxford
Language :
English
Title :
The Welfare State and Anti-Poverty Policy in Rich Countries