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Is Poverty Reduction in Europe Doomed? Conjectures, Facts and a Cautiously Optimistic Conclusion

Ive Marx (ive.marx@uantwerpen.be), Henri Haapanala and Sarah Marchal (sarah.marchal@ua.ac.be)
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Ive Marx: University of Antwerp
Henri Haapanala: University of Antwerp
Sarah Marchal: University of Antwerp

No 16967, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: There has not been much progress on the poverty front in Europe over recent decades, at least if we take it as a relative phenomenon in affluent societies. There is a lot of pessimism about the possibility of making any real progress at all. Some argue that adequate poverty relief is simply too expensive or that it would put too much of a redistributive burden on the electorally powerful, making it politically difficult, if not infeasible. Another prominent argument is that wage floors and thus out-of-work benefit levels are inexorably under pressure, making poverty relief both harder to achieve and more expensive in budgetary terms. This paper sets out these accounts and focuses on what has been happening to statutory, absolute and effective wage floors in Europe over the past decades. We ask whether progress on the poverty front through pushing up wage floors and subsequently out-of-work benefits is a realistic prospect. We see reasons for optimism.

Keywords: poverty; income distribution; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I39 J01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-eur, nep-lab and nep-ltv
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