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PAUVRETE - POVERTY

. A profile of the working poor : 2006, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, Report, n° 1006, August, 14 p., (2008)
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Etats-Unis / United States

. Fairness of public pensions and old-age poverty, F. Breyer and S. Hupfeld, DIW, Berlin, Discussion papers, n° 817, September, 21 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : In several OECD countries, public pay-as-you-go financed pension systems have undergone major reforms in which future retirement benefit promises have been scaled down. A consequence of these reforms is that especially in countries with a tight tax-benefit linkage, the retirement benefit claims of low-income workers might not even exceed the minimum income guarantee which the government provides the aged. Recently, some German politicians have criticized this likely development because it was unjust that persons who have paid contributions over a long working life end up with no higher benefits than people who have never worked or paid any contributions. However, the government defended the current retirement benefit formula with the argument that every Euro paid as contributions had exactly the same value in generating future retirement benefits. But this logic has been questioned recently, e.g. by Breyer and Hupfeld (2007), since the value of a contributed Euro depends on the life expectancy of the individual, which is positively correlated with annual income. In that earlier paper, we introduced the concept of „distributive neutrality“, which takes income-group-specific differences in life expectancy into account. The present paper estimates the relationship between annual earnings and life expectancy of German retirees empirically and shows how the formula that links benefits to contributions would have to be modified to achieve distributive neutrality. We compare the new formula to the benefit formulas in other OECD countries and analyze a data set provided by the German Pension Insurance Office on a large cohort of pensioners to find out how the old-age poverty rate would be affected by the proposed change of the benefit formula. Finally, we discuss other possible effects of a change in the benefit formula, especially on the labour supply of different earnings groups.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Pays de l'OCDE / OECD countries

. How to halve child poverty by 2010 : Options for redirecting resources to reduce child poverty, Barnado's, Illford, 42 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Royaume-Uni / United Kingdom

. Life situations in Germany : The German Federal Government's 3rd report on poverty and wealth,  Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, Berlin, Executive summary, 34 p., (2008).
Deutsche Version "Lebenslagen in Deutschland : Der 3. Armuts- und Reichtumsbericht der Bundesregierung : Kurzfassung"
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Allemagne / Germany

. Poverty measurement : The development of different approaches and its techniques, C. Nunes, Ecineq, Palma de Mallorca, Working papers series, n° 2008-93, 32 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : None

. Social exclusion of the elderly : A comparative study of EU member states, G. Jehoel-Gijsbers and C. Vrooman, Enepri, Bruxelles, Enepri research report, n° 57, September, 90 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

. Travail et pauvreté au Canada, Institut de Recherche en Politiques publiques, Montréal, Options politiques, septembre, (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Canada

EMPLOI - EMPLOYMENT

. A comparative review of workfare programmes in the United States, Canada and Australia, R. Crispand and  D. Roy Fletcher, Department for Work and Pensions, London, Research report, n° 533, September, 24 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Etats-Unis, Canada, Australie / United States, Canada, Australia

. Le nombre d’allocataires du RMI au 30 juin 2008, S. Cazain et alii, Drees, Paris, études et résultats, n° 657, septembre, 4 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : Au 30 juin 2008, en France métropolitaine et dans les départements d’outre-mer (DOM), 1,14 million de foyers perçoivent le revenu minimum d’insertion (RMI) versé par les caisses d’allocations familiales (CAF). Ce nombre, en données corrigées des variations saisonnières (CVS), diminue de 5,2 % entre juin 2007 et juin 2008, mais reste stable au deuxième trimestre 2008. Cette stabilisation du nombre d’allocataires du RMI est liée à un ralentissement de l’amélioration du marché du travail. Par ailleurs, le nombre de titulaires de contrats aidés (contrats d’avenir et contrats insertion – revenu minimum d’activité [CI-RMA]) est en légère diminution ce trimestre. Au 30 juin 2008, environ 179 000 foyers bénéficient d’une mesure d’intéressement à la reprise d’activité au titre du RMI, dont 93 000 continuent à percevoir un paiement RMI. Parmi les allocataires du RMI en seconde période d’intéressement, les trois quarts sont bénéficiaires d’une prime forfaitaire, c’est-à-dire qu’ils occupent un emploi d’une durée égale ou supérieure à un mi-temps.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. The non take-up of an unemployment insurance reform in France, S. Blasco, Crest, Paris, Document de travail, n° 2008-14, 40 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Les services à la personne : bilan et perspectives - Document d'orientation, M. Debonneuil, La Documentation française, Paris, septembre, 109 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Working conditions in Greece from a comparative EU perspective with special attention to an ageing workforce, G. Vermeylen, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin, 28 p., (2008).
Ελληνικά "Συνθήκες εργασίας στην Ελλάδα σε σύγκριση με το επίπεδο της ΕΕ με ιδιαίτερη μνεία στο γηράσκον εργατικό δυναμικό"
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe, Grèce  / Europe, Greece

. Working time developments : 2007, EIROnline, Dublin, September, 36 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

REVENU - INCOME

. 3,4 millions d'allocataires à bas revenus dans les caisses d'Allocations familiales en 2006, C. Jaulent, Caf, Paris, L'e-ssentiel, n° 76, août, 4 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Αυξήσεις αμοιβών και ευελιξία μισθών, (Augmentations et fléxibilité des salaires), Σ. Δημητριάδη, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin, 23 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe, Grèce  / Europe, Greece

. Can policy interact with culture ? Minimum wage and the quality of labor relations, P. Aghion, Y. Algan and P. Cahuc, Institute for the Study of  Labor, Bonn, IZA discussion paper, n° 3680, September, 69 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : Can public policy interfere with culture, such as beliefs and norms of cooperation? We investigate his question by evaluating the interactions between the State and the Civil Society, focusing on the labor market. International data shows a negative correlation between union density and the quality of labor relations on one hand, and state regulation of the minimum wage on the other hand. To explain this relation, we develop a model of learning of the quality of labor relations. State regulation crowds out the possibility for workers to experiment negotiation and learn about the true cooperative nature of participants in the labor market. This crowding out effect can give rise to multiple equilibria: a "good" equilibrium characterized by strong beliefs in cooperation, leading to high union density and low state regulation; and a "bad" equilibrium, characterized by distrustful labor relations, low union density and strong state regulation of the minimum wage. We then use surveys on social attitudes and unionization behavior to document the relation between minimum wage legislation and the beliefs about the scope of cooperation in the labor market.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : None

. Labour supply modelling in Italy when minimum income scheme is an option, E. Narazani and I. Shima, Microsimulation Unit, Colchester, Euromod working paper, n° EM6/08, July, 31 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : In this paper we analyze the effects of Minimum Guaranteed Income (MGI) schemes on labour supply of Italian married couples by applying a behavioural micro-simulation tax-benefit model. The Tax-Benefit Model applied is the static micro-simulation model of EUROMOD. A household labour supply model is simulated with different tax rules where MGI is an option. The simulated tax regimes are Negative Income Tax (NIT), Workfare Tax (WF) and Universal Basic Income (UBI). These exercises of behavioural micro-simulation tax-benefit are performed at national and regional level. Our main finding is that changes in labour supply due to these tax-transfer rules are small and this is in favour of such income support policies. Concerning tax-transfer rules without hour’s constraint, such as UBI and NIT, they imply labour disincentives more in the South than in the North of the country, and the effect is amplified with the increase of generosity level. Considering the welfare effects of these tax-transfer rules, we find that there are more “winners” than “losers” in the south than in the north as there are more households participating in these MGI schemes due to their low income status.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Italie / Italy

. Labor supply responses of Italian women to minimum income policies, A. L. Mancini, Ecineq, Palma de Mallorca, Working papers series, n° 2008-94, 38 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : Minimum income policies are policies aimed at guarantee all citizens with a minimum level of income and at fighting social exclusion typically associated with extreme poverty. Theoretically, their main shortcoming is the disincentive effect on labour market participation they could generate in the bottom part of income distribution, due to the high effective marginal tax rate they impose around the threshold level. This paper employs a structural labor supply model under discrete choices to test the existence and the magnitude of this disincentive effect on Italian female labor supply. Our empirical results show that family structure is crucial in determining the existence of a disincentive effect: only married women experience it, while single women participation rates increase under all possible minimum income schemes. The magnitude of both the positive and the negative effect depend on the policy design
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Italie / Italy

AUTRES DONNEES SOCIALES - OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES

. Participation financière des patients et équilibre de l’assurance maladie, M. Elbaum, OFCE, Paris, Lettre de l’OFCE, n° 301, septembre, 8 p.,  (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Population in Europe 2007 : First results, G. Lanzieri, Eurostat, Luxembourg, Statistics in focus, n° 81/2008, 12 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

. Preferences for redistribution : A European comparative analysis, E. Guillaud, Paris-Jourdan Sciences économiques, Paris, Working paper, n° 2008-41, 49 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary :What explains people’s preferences for state intervention in social policies? Conducting a cross-section analysis on individual-level survey data, we highlight the link between the economic position of agents and their specific demand toward redistribution. Controlling for a number of factors usually found to impact individual preferences in the literature, we take the egoistic motives for redistribution seriously and focus on the role played by the occupational status of individuals in shaping their preferences. Thus, (i) we estimate the relative importance of economic factors in terms of current and expected gain, allowing for social mobility experience and risk aversion. Further, (ii) we try to identify which socio-political groups could be formed on the basis of their preferences for redistribution. Finally, (iii) we highlight differences between European countries as it comes to the grouping of agents.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe