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The distributional impact of social transfers in the European Union: evidence from the ECHP
Author(s) -
Heady Christopher,
Mitrakos Theodore,
Tsakloglou Panos
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
fiscal studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1475-5890
pISSN - 0143-5671
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-5890.2001.tb00052.x
Subject(s) - european union , poverty , economics , inequality , distribution (mathematics) , transfer (computing) , demographic economics , international economics , public economics , econometrics , economic growth , mathematical analysis , mathematics , parallel computing , computer science
Social transfers vary enormously across the European Union, as has been demonstrated in earlier research. This paper analyses the comparative effects of these transfers on inequality and poverty, using consistent household data. The analysis shows that the distributional impact of these transfers is greater in countries that spend a higher proportion of their GDP on them, but that there are other important determinants, including the extent of means testing, the distribution of funds between different types of transfer and the degree of targeting for each transfer. It also shows that effective targeting can be achieved without high levels of means testing.