Bea Cantillon

Bio: Bea Cantillon is an academic researcher from University of Antwerp. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poverty & Welfare state. The author has an hindex of 20, co-authored 112 publications receiving 3029 citations.

Social indicators: the EU and social inclusion

Abstract: Social indicators are an important tool for evaluating a country's level of social development and for assessing the impact of policy. Such indicators are already in use in investigating poverty and social exclusion in several European countries and have begun to play a significant role in advancing the social dimension of the EU as a whole. The purpose of this book is to make a scientific contribution to the development of social indicators for the purposes of European policy‐making. It considers the principles underlying the construction of policy‐relevant indicators, the definition of indicators, and the issues that arise in their implementation, including that of the statistical data required. It seeks to bring together theoretical and methodological methods in the measurement of poverty/social exclusion with the empirical practice of social policy. The experience of member states is reviewed, including an assessment of the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion submitted for the first time in June 2001 by the 15 EU governments. The key areas covered by the book are poverty, including its intensity and persistence, income inequality, non‐monetary deprivation, low educational attainment, unemployment, joblessness, poor health, poor housing and homelessness, functional illiteracy and innumeracy, and restricted social participation. In each case, the book assesses the strengths and weaknesses of different indicators relevant to social inclusion in the EU, and makes recommendations for the indicators to be employed. The book is based on a report prepared at the request of the Belgian government, as part of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2001, and presented at a conference on ‘Indicators for Social Inclusion: Making Common EU Objectives Work’ held at Antwerp on 14–15 Sept 2001.

The paradox of the social investment state: growth, employment and poverty in the Lisbon era

Abstract: Summary After the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, on the eve of the elaboration of policies designed to help reach the Europe 2020 target of lifting 20 million people out of poverty, it is important to take stock of the outcomes of the Lisbon agenda for growth, employment and social inclusion. The question arises why, despite growth of average incomes and of employment, poverty rates have not gone down, but have either stagnated or even increased. In this paper we identify the following trends: rising employment has benefited workless households only partially; income protection for the working-age population out of work has become less adequate; social policies and, more generally, social redistribution have become less pro-poor. These observations are indicative of the ambivalence of the Lisbon Strategy and its underlying investment paradigm.

Indicators for Social Inclusion

Abstract: The European Union adopted in December 2001 a set of common indicators for social inclusion. This paper describes the background to the adoption of the indicators, and the work undertaken as part of the Belgian Presidency. It sets out principles for the construction of social indicators for this purpose, emphasising their role as performance indicators: the concern is with "outputs" not "inputs". The principles apply to single indicators and to the portfolio of indicators as a whole. These principles influence the structure and presentation of indicators. We propose a three-tier approach: a small number of common lead indicators for the main fields that we believe should be covered, a larger number of (again common) secondary indicators providing greater detail, and a third level of indicators that Member States decide to include. Finally we discuss the process for taking forward the development of indicators for social inclusion.

Reconciling work and poverty reduction: how successful are European welfare states?

Abstract: Since the beginning of the great recession, poverty has, not unexpectedly, increased in many Member States of the European Union More worrying in view of its structural implications is the observation that in the years before the financial crisis, in most European countries poverty rates for the non-elderly population have stagnated or even increased, in spite of economic growth and rising employment This suggests limitations that are inherent to employment-centred welfare reform and downward pressures on the redistributive capacity of welfare states The book focuses on links between poverty trends, patterns of labour market participation and social redistribution The analyses hinge upon the distribution of jobs over households, by distinguishing work-poor and work-rich households With regard to the redistributive role of welfare states, the traditional ‘pre-post approach’ is augmented with regression analyses and indicators that reflect the impact of policies The book also presents a refined method of measuring the redistributive effect of social expenditure, particularly for in-kind benefits Due consideration is given to concepts, measurement and data: when relevant and feasible micro-simulation, alternative surveys and additional indicators are used The empirical observations with reference to the impact of employment-centred welfare reforms on poverty are linked with a broader perspective on the socio-economic, demographic and paradigmatic evolutions in contemporary welfare states The book highlights the importance of social redistribution per se and the necessity to study the impact of social spending on poverty

Three Shortcomings of the Social Investment Perspective

Abstract: In this article we critically assess the social investment perspective that has become the dominant paradigm in European social policymaking. We identify and discuss some of its shortcomings that may hamper social progress for all. In doing so, we focus on three pillars central to the idea of social investment: social inclusion through work, individual responsibility and human capital investment. We find that the social investment perspective has some serious flaws when it comes to the social protection of vulnerable groups. This is strongly related to the continuing relevance of social class in explaining and remedying social inequalities. We conclude that investment cannot be the only rationale for welfare state intervention and that protecting people should remain equally high on the policy agenda.

Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement

Abstract: This paper proposes a new methodology for multidimensional poverty measurement consisting of an identification method ρk that extends the traditional intersection and union approaches, and a class of poverty measures Mα. Our identification step employs two forms of cutoff: one within each dimension to determine whether a person is deprived in that dimension, and a second across dimensions that identifies the poor by ‘counting’ the dimensions in which a person is deprived. The aggregation step employs the FGT measures, appropriately adjusted to account for multidimensionality. The axioms are presented as joint restrictions on identification and the measures, and the methodology satisfies a range of desirable properties including decomposability. The identification method is particularly well suited for use with ordinal data, as is the first of our measures, the adjusted headcount ratio. We present some dominance results and an interpretation of the adjusted headcount ratio as a measure of unfreedom. Examples from the US and Indonesia illustrate our methodology.

Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change

Abstract: The Review's executive summary states that "the Review first examines the evidence on the economic impacts of climate change itself, and explores the economics of stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The second half of the Review considers the complex policy challenges involved in managing the transition to a low-carbon economy and in ensuring that societies can adapt to the consequences of climate change that can no longer be avoided". The report's main conclusion is that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change considerably outweigh the costs.

Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment

Abstract: dismantling the welfare state reagan thatcher and politics of retrenchment are a good way to achieve details about operating certainproducts. Many products that you buy can be obtained using instruction manuals. These user guides are clearlybuilt to give step-by-step information about how you ought to go ahead in operating certain equipments. Ahandbook is really a user's guide to operating the equipments. Should you loose your best guide or even the productwould not provide an instructions, you can easily obtain one on the net. You can search for the manual of yourchoice online. Here, it is possible to work with google to browse through the available user guide and find the mainone you'll need. On the net, you'll be able to discover the manual that you might want with great ease andsimplicity