Search

Background Social support services such as day care centres are important in post-diagnostic dementia care to enable people living with dementia stay at home for longer. Little research has addressed potential inequalities in access, with no research on variations before and since COVID-19. The aim of this study was to explore inequalities in social support service usage before and since the pandemic. Methods Unpaid carers and people living with dementia were interviewed over the phone about their experiences of accessing social support services before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Transcripts were analysed for key themes using inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Results Fifty participants (42 unpaid carers; eight people living with dementia) were interviewed, and five themes identified: (1) Service issues; (2) Access issues; (3) Relying on own initiative; (4) New inequalities due to COVID-19; and (5) Missing out on the benefits of support services. Participants reported transport, finances, and location as factors reducing their ability to access support service pre-COVID, with inequalities remaining and at times exacerbated since. Carers and people living with dementia also reported struggling with accessing basic necessities during COVID, including food and medicines. Conclusions Considering the benefits of accessing support services, resourced procedures and facilities are needed to maintain access to support services with more accessible remote support provision, enabling people from all backgrounds to access the care they need.

Over the past 15 years, government guidelines on social discounting for benefit–cost analysis have been updated in many different countries. These updates appear to reflect the influence of important academic contributions recommending the use of a declining term structure of discount rates. Using qualitative evidence from the United Kingdom, United States, France, and The Netherlands, this article shows that the influence of this academic supply side would not have been possible without the policy demand side and the presence of institutional or charismatic policy brokers acting as policy market makers. We argue that the market analogy is a useful framework for academics seeking to influence policy with their research.

Along our observation period from 2006 to 2015, the trend in many European countries is the combina­tion of rising labour market policy (LMP) spending on aggregate and declining spending per person want­ing to work. This means that even though the public faced an increased cost of LMP, the resources chan­nelled to the individual job seeker shrunk on average. As for the balance between active and passive (cash benefits) expenditure, we find no evidence of one crowding out the other. Expenditure on cash benefits and on ALMP remain highly correlated, with bene­fits receiving more resources in most countries. Much more than between ALMP- and PLMP-countries, we can distinguish between countries spending little and countries spending much on LMP. A higher GDP and a larger government budget correlate with a higher share of the budget dedicated to LMP and a higher real LMP spending per person wanting to work. At the level of individual countries, we observe changing spending profiles, but no common trend. There is some convergence of labour market policy spending in the observation period, but it is mostly a ‘con­vergence from above’ in the sense that some big spenders drastically cut their expenditure. This holds in particular for cash benefits, but also for ALMP. Some CEE countries increase their LMP spending, start­ing partly from very low initial levels. While training remains the most important spending category among the different types of ALMP, spend­ing slowly shifts away from this costly, but long-term investment in human capital. This is for us the most important sign that the discursive dominance of the social investment paradigm in Europe since the early 2000s is not reflected in the trends of LMP spending. Despite the asymmetric spending on LMP in Europe, we do not postulate further socioeconomic diver­gence between European countries as a consequence: Our multivariate analysis does not unequivocally con­firm aggregate positive effects of ALMP or PLMP on employment. A positive effect of ALMP spending on employment, if it exists, remains small according to our estimates. The econometric literature on the macro-economic effects of LMP is also divided. We used an innovative approach to evaluate the impact of LMPs on the level as well as the distribution of employment (taking on board externalities such as substitution or crowding out) by combining country-level statistics on LMP expenditure with individual data on labour market status drawn from EU-SILC. We separately estimated the effects of LMP expenses on (a) the probability of participating in the labour market (= activity rate), either employed or unemployed); and (b) the probability of employment. This yielded the following results: Contrary to the predictions of the (neoliberal) ‘making work pay’ or the (conservative) ‘dependency’ theory, more generous spending on cash benefits (PLMP) has no negative effect on the probability of employment. The alleged disincentive effect on job search may be offset by a positive ‘social investment’ effect: higher unemployment benefits allow job seekers to invest more in their human capital and in job search. Concerning the probability of economic activity, more generous benefits do have a positive effect. This can be explained by the fact that a better social protection attracts more people into the (formal) labour market. As regards the effects of ALMP, our results are more critical: higher expenditure on such measures tends to go in pair with higher employment rates (as expected) but these effects are not robust across different specifications. More intensive ALMP also goes in pair with lower activity rates, which is more surprising. The most straightforward interpretation of the latter effect would be reverse causality: governments may decide to invest more in ALMP when they consider activity rates as insufficient. However, we tried to rule out such reverse causality by taking into account a time lag of one to two years between ALMP spending and the probability of economic activity. Plausible alternative interpretations are ‘threat effects’ of ALMP and sanctions that drive persons who do not find jobs into inactivity. This suggests that ALMP do have substantial perverse effects, which raises concerns about the design and implementation of ALMP. The most positive aspect of ALMP appears to be their redistributive effect. Female, older, and low edu­cated workers benefit most from LMP: their economic activity and employment is promoted, in contrast to younger, better educated or male workers. Systematically privileging the more disadvantaged groups highlights LMP as a promotor of equality at the labour market.

This Selected Issues paper examines inflation dynamics in Bulgaria from January 2012 to February 2015 and highlights some stylized facts about inflation in the country. January 2012 to February 2015 is the most relevant period for identifying factors contributing to recent deflation in Bulgaria, as well as their relative importance. Regression analysis suggests that during this period the inward spillover of low inflationary pressure from the European Union to Bulgaria has been the most significant factor, which was further exacerbated by consecutive electricity price cuts in 2013 and fast-falling global commodity prices, especially since late 2014.

The authors examine, from a social policy perspective, the UK government's 1998 transport White Paper, which aims to reduce the environmental and social costs of growing traffic congestion and pollution. Data from the British Social Attitudes Survey are used to analyse the implications of the government's new transport policy for the relative welfare of different social and demographic groups. The results suggest that car dependency, which the government is hoping to tackle, is widespread and is particularly strong among men, people with higher incomes, those aged between 25 and 59 years, people with children, the nonmanual social classes, and those living in rural areas. These classes and groups share most of the responsibility for the negative impacts of motor transport, and are often the least concerned about them. They are also the people most opposed to the idea of government intervention to ameliorate the problems.

NBER Working Paper No. 24623; We develop a method for comparing levels and trends in inequality in mortality in the United States and France between 1990 and 2010 in a similar framework. The comparison shows that while income inequality has increased in both the United States and France, inequality in mortality in France remained remarkably low and stable. In the United States, inequality in mortality increased for older groups (especially women) while it decreased for children and young adults. These patterns highlight the fact that despite the strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, there is no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.

This paper on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) on Kenya explains macroeconomic, structural, and social policies in support of growth and poverty reduction, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing. The overall objective of macroeconomic policy is to restore economic growth within a sustainable framework of low inflation and healthy balance of payments. The primary objective of the health sector reform process is to enhance accessibility and affordability of quality basic health services for all Kenyans with special emphasis on the poor and vulnerable.

The overarching objective of Bhutan’s Tenth Five-Year Plan (10FYP)—which is also the Royal Government of Bhutan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)—is to sustain this trajectory and reduce poverty further. Political stability, prudent economic management, and development of the hydropower sector delivered robust economic growth during the 9FYP. Favorable economic performance was underpinned by sound macroeconomic policies. The 10FYP forecasts an average fiscal deficit of about 3 percent of GDP, the same as in the 9FYP and in line with the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB)'s strategic fiscal policy goals.

This paper discusses Bhutan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The Royal Government of Bhutan has initiated the PRSP process as part of broader ongoing efforts to combat poverty. The main objective of the PRSP process is to strengthen the strategic framework for poverty reduction, improve donor coordination, and build support for new initiatives in public expenditure management and poverty monitoring and evaluation. The envisaged process builds directly on the Ninth Five-Year Plan (Ninth Plan).

This note reviews the Republic of Congo’s Poverty Reduction, Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (PRSP). PRSP outlines a comprehensive framework for the reduction of poverty and emphasizes diversifying the economy to generate employment, provide social services and reduce the vulnerability of its citizens, and strengthen good governance. It can be further strengthened by setting clear, realistic targets, prioritizing and sequencing goals and plans to achieve those goals, and creating systems for monitoring and evaluating the specific projects undertaken.

This report examines effects of social protection in the EU. Part I analyses (trends in) the impact of social benefits on poverty: What differences in social protection can we observe between countries? How has social protection changed in the wake of the crisis in Europe? Our analysis emphasises some economic conditions of welfare states’ fight against poverty which are too often neglected in the public and the scien­tific discussion. We assert that poverty rates have been rising in Europe since before the ‘Great Recession’, but argue that this is not exclusively caused by welfare state change. While it is true that the evolution of social protection was negative on average across European countries, there was a number of countries (13) where the effectiveness of social benefits against poverty improved. Yet, it did not always improve suffi­ciently to counter growing primary income inequalities. We see a detrimental legacy of the ‘Great Recession’ at least as much in terms of poverty challenges as in terms of welfare state institutions in Europe. Social benefits strongly modify the income distribution and the poverty rate in some European countries, but less in others. Scandinavian social security systems generally offer the strongest social protection in Europe, though the Dutch and the Irish social security systems seem to come ahead of the Swedish most recently in terms of impact of social benefits (maybe not services in-kind). Households’ poverty gaps in Northern Europe being particularly wide, the poverty-alleviating impacts of Scandinavian social benefits appear even more impressive as soon as one controls for the poverty challenge. Richer countries generally feature greater inequality before redistribution, but the poverty-alleviating impacts of their social security systems are also higher. Countries assist the poorest households to different degrees. In all countries, households escape poverty risks through social benefits more rarely if their poverty gap is bigger. In some countries, however, the households with the lowest primary incomes are hardly ever lifted above the poverty threshold (e.g. Roma­nia, Latvia). In contrast, social benefits are a comparatively big success against poverty also for the poorest households especially in the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Part II zooms in on the effectiveness of social benefits in supporting the most vulnerable households (those faced with ‘pre-transfer poverty’ and those with very low work intensity) in leaving the state of pov­erty and/or quasi-joblessness. We examine the dynamic effects, i.e. shifts in socio-economic position fol­lowing one and two years after benefit receipt. A central finding is that ‘more generous’ social benefits have a negative impact on households’ leaving the state of dependency or of increasing work intensity. However, even though statistically significant, effects are extremely small: we estimate that if the amount of social benefits doubles, the poverty gap shrinks between one and two percentage points less within one year. Households that receive fewer benefits are thus a little faster in gaining financial independence from the social security system. The negative effect of social benefits is found to be stronger for households with a greater depth of poverty, respectively with lower work intensity. Higher social benefits are also connected to a slower return to employment, but the estimated effect is even smaller. A doubling of social benefits would results in a less than one percentage point lower increase in work intensity between two consecutive years. This (negative) relationship is driven by households at high risk of poverty. This suggests that only households that find their income situation significantly improved by social benefits tend to use the additional financial leeway for staying at distance from the labour market (while an alleged ‘disincentive effect’ should in principle apply to all sorts of households). An important finding is that households seek to escape the situation of benefit dependency and jobless­ness rather independently of whether social benefits are ‘generous’ or not; until they have successfully done so, benefits grant households social protection, and possibly also improve subsequent job matching. All in all, there seems to be no genuine trade-off between ‘generosity’ and efficiency of social security benefits.

This paper focuses on Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The economic sectors have undergone significant restructuring. This restructuring has been concentrated on production capacities, quality and efficiency, thus contributing to economic growth and meeting the initial requirements for international integration. The government has also concentrated on the development of agricultural production to reorient the agriculture sector from semisubsistence and subsistence to commercial production to ensure the enhanced supply of raw materials to the processing industries, meeting the growing domestic requirements for agricultural products, and rapidly expanding agricultural exports.

This paper focuses on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper—National Strategy for Development and Integration (PRSP–NSDI) for Albania. The paper provides an overview of the key challenges facing the country. It presents a brief statement of the national vision, identifies the strategic priorities, and articulates the strategic goals to be achieved. The paper also summarizes the key points of each of the underlying strategies by strategic priority, and discusses the main changes in the distribution of resources across broad sectors that will be needed in the period 2007–13.

This Joint Staff Advisory Note focuses on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper–II for Cape Verde. Important progress was made in poverty reduction, but rural poverty still remains high. The strategy reports that Cape Verde is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015. Despite progress made to date, the gap between urban and rural income growth is still wide; thus, efforts to raise rural incomes further and a more effective design of social inclusion programs are needed.

This paper focuses on Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy Paper–II (GPRSP II) for Cape Verde. The GPRSP II is formulated with reference to five major strategic aims concerning good governance, human capital, competitiveness, infrastructure building, and social cohesion. In identifying and pursuing these aims, the country seeks to improve its performance with respect to the established objectives and targets. The central objective of poverty reduction rests primarily upon structural policies linked to the promotion of inclusive economic growth, complemented by redistributive policies that are socially compensatory and focused on groups with high vulnerability.

This paper discusses implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) in Liberia. Liberia’s PRS articulates the government’s overall vision and major strategies for moving toward rapid, inclusive, and sustainable growth and development during the period 2008–11. This paper provides the context for the PRS by describing the conflict and economic collapse, the transition beyond conflict, and the initial progress achieved during the past two years. It stresses that Liberia must create much greater economic and political opportunities for all its citizens and ensure that growth and development are widely shared.

From 2001, Togo has been engaged in the process of preparing its poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP). As a result of the social and political crisis, Togo’s economy has been affected severely. To overcome this crisis, the government has been engaged in key reforms intended to restore harmony to the political climate and focused on restoring financial aid. The measures contained in this interim strategy paper lay the groundwork for improving the public policies/programs required to make progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This paper discusses the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper—Preparation Status Report for Dominica. The paper discusses that the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica has advanced its sectoral strategy to enhance growth in several dimensions. With technical assistance from the World Bank, the government has been reviewing its Electricity Supply Act to modify it and allow the exploitation of geothermal energy, which potentially can be exported to neighboring islands. The government has also made progress in the area of social protection.

We examined the relationship between the tobacco industry and the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (RTP) using the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library and internet sources. We determined the funding relationships, and categorised the conclusions of all 52 RTP papers on tobacco or nicotine between January 2013 and June 2015, as “positive”, “negative” or “neutral” for the tobacco industry. RTP’s editor, 57% (4/7) of associate editors and 37% (14/38) of editorial board members had worked or consulted for tobacco companies. Almost all (96%, 50/52) of the papers had authors with tobacco industry ties. Seventy-six percent (38/50) of these papers drew conclusions positive for industry; none drew negative conclusions. The two papers by authors not related to the tobacco industry reached conclusions negative to the industry (p

This Annual Progress Report focuses on The Gambia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). It provides information and analysis regarding the achievements and shortfalls experienced between July 2002 and December 2003 with respect to the poverty targets, priority public actions, and the monitoring and evaluation systems put in place for the PRSP/Strategy for poverty alleviation II (SPA II). The report highlights important changes necessary in the strategy as appropriate in light of implementation experiences to date, changes in exogenous factors, and new data and analysis regarding poverty and its dimensions.

This paper evaluates Armenia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Progress Report covering August 2003–December 2004. The developments in 2003–04 are rather reassuring. The resulting pattern, overall, is more favorable than what was foreseen by the PRSP development scenario. Particularly, the economy grew twice as rapidly as the projected rate, and the government continues to implement a public expenditure policy that is focused on social sectors and infrastructure development. As a result, compared with PRSP targets, a better performance on poverty and inequality reduction has been recorded in 2003.

This paper discusses the First Progress Report on the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) in Serbia. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Serbia and its implementation complement the efforts of Serbia in the European Union integration process. The PRSP also includes a focus on the need to reform the public administration with the goal of increasing the efficiency and transparency of policy coordination and governance in implementing the programmatic documents of the Republic of Serbia as well as in improving the way of governing the overall and public sector policies.

According to the national household survey conducted during the summer and autumn of 2005, poverty in Afghanistan (headcount rate) is about 33 percent. Economic performance since the fall of the Taliban regime has been strong, and macroeconomic stability has been maintained. During 2002–03 through 2006–07, real GDP growth has averaged 15 percent per year, reflecting a recovery in agriculture, donor-funded postwar reconstruction, and initial yet promising growth of a range of private sector activities. The macroeconomic policy framework is broadly in line with the authorities’ economic program.

The Joint Staff Advisory Note (JSAN) of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper on Burkina Faso reviews poverty trends, characteristics, and strategies for its reduction. The macroeconomic framework is based on an average real growth rate of about 6½ percent, which is in line with the average growth rate. The potential for enhancing tax revenues notwithstanding, additional donor support would be needed, and should be provided principally in the form of grants, given Burkina Faso’s high level of external debt.

This paper presents an update to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. It discusses that a tendency toward continual growth of the unemployment levels was verified in the urban region between 2000 and 2003 while during the same period, a tendency of continual decrease in the rural zone was detected, with a few variations. The variation rate of unemployment in the urban zone during the period between 2000 and 2003 was 48 percent while the variation rate of unemployment in the rural region was 16.5 percent.

This Joint Staff Advisory Note focuses on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. The PRSP sets an ambitious policy agenda—with an overall cost of about US$210 million for the first seven years of implementation. It provides a reliable framework for reducing poverty in São Tomé and Príncipe. It identifies women, the elderly, and the young in need of special support, and envisages improving the access of women and the young to literacy programs and occupational training.

This Joint Staff Advisory (JSA) Note examines the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Progress Report for Armenia. Overall, the Progress Report provides evidence of stronger-than-anticipated poverty reduction and economic performance, improvement in the labor market, and a number of other accomplishments, particularly in fiscal policy and social service delivery. The report also indicates that progress has been made on many issues raised in the previous JSA, including on improved monitoring and evaluation, participation, and aligning the budget process with the PRSP.

This paper reviews Uzbekistan’s Interim Welfare Improvement Strategy Paper (I-WISP). I-WISP defines the main directions and measures aimed at improving living standards and reducing poverty among the population of Uzbekistan for 2005–10. The strategy is designed to further expand reforms in all aspects of life in the society based on the national model of economic and social development, the social values of the people of Uzbekistan, and their commitment to the processes of integration into the world community.

Implementation of Chad’s first National Poverty Reduction Strategy was undermined by persistent internal conflict, weak governance, and lack of commitment to and ownership of economic and social reforms. The focus now is on the restoration of security, the improvement of governance, the diversification of the economy, and the promotion of human development. The government has to be mindful of the risks to this strategy. Executive Directors propose that the government should shift away from past patterns and demonstrate commitment to poverty reduction and good governance.

In October 2006, the Chadian government prepared a second National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS2). NPRS2 analyzed poverty in Chad, reviewed the results of the first NPRS and progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), defined the strategic pillars of the second strategy, examined two key scenarios for poverty reduction and growth, and described the institutional framework for implementation of the strategy. The government considers NPRS2 as the main instrument for achieving the MDGs in Chad, and therefore the preferred framework for socioeconomic development.

This report was prepared within the framework of the Europe H2020 project ‘Rebuilding an inclusive, value based Europe of solidarity and trust through social investments’ (RE-InVEST). The project RE-InVEST aims to contribute to a more solidary and trust worthy Europe, through an inclusive, powerful and effective social investment strategy at EU-level. Moreover, the project itself adopts a participative approach that lends a voice to vulnerable groups and civil society organisations. The RE-InVEST consortium consists of mem­bers of informal network ‘the Alliances to fight Poverty’, a network of civil society organisations, trade unions, policy makers and academics co-ordinated by Flemish Cristian labour movement ‘beweging.net, and committed to a more inclusive Europe. The consortium covers a broad range of European countries, both geographically (12 countries, 13 regions) and in terms of representation of different welfare and labour market traditions. In particular, this report aims to assess the role of active labour market policies (ALMPs) and social protection from a social investment perspective. The evaluation of national/regional policies has been carried out through participatory qualitative research from the perspective of the most vulnerable groups. Mixed focus groups were created in seven countries (Austria, Belgium, England, France, Latvia, Portugal and Switzerland) between September 2016 and June 2017. The analyses were carried out by the local partners, consisting of NGOs and/or researchers. The fact that the focus of the Portuguese research paper is on the young unemployed is attributable to unemployment remaining a major problem among young people aged between 18-29 years old. Despite the slight improvement of economic and social indicators in Portugal, this aspect stills requires careful attention, as new entrants to the labour market, young people face serious difficulties to get a job. This is mostly exacerbated when they do not receive any kind of social protection and particularly when they are coerced into accepting job offers. Young people in precarious employment face higher job insecurity and uncertainty about the future, which are relevant negative factors affecting their ability to make life plans and establish their goals in line with reasonable expectations about upcoming opportunities. This group has been so severely hit by the economic crisis and so it is a great concern and a top priority[1] among EU Member States. Youth Guarantee (YG) as a recent and innovative programme aims to give a response to youth unemployment. This report examines the extent to which the young unemployed (18 to 29 years) obtain a response from YG to their needs and whether these measures are articulated with social protection policies or not, in other words if they invest in social needs. The RE-InVEST consortium has jointly developed the PAHRCA – a methodology that combines prin­ciples of Participatory Action research with Human Rights and Capability Approaches. This qualitative, participatory research does not produce representative results but rather aims to deepen the understanding of Active Labour Market Policies (ALMP) and Social Protection (SP) impacts on the lives of vulnerable people and give them a voice. [1] In the 2015 Annual Growth Survey, the Commission called for determined action to improve the labour market situation of young people, with the Youth Guarantee representing an ambitious way of combining different instruments to address youth unemployment effectively. Thematic fiche youth unemployment European Semester (European Commission, 2015).

A number of initiatives begun in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) remain incomplete and need to be further implemented in the new PRSP. Executive Directors recommend institutionalization of the PRSP process as a comprehensive approach to overall public policymaking. Strengthened governance is a fundamental cornerstone of the PRSP process. The Gambia has to sustain ongoing efforts, especially in strengthening public expenditure management, the investment climate, and internal controls at the central bank. It will be critical for the PRSP process to be open, transparent, and participatory.