The Experts below are selected from a list of 144417 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Björn Gustafsson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Social Assistance among immigrants and natives in Sweden
International Journal of Manpower, 2013Co-Authors: Björn GustafssonAbstract:Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the issue of Social Assistance receipt among immigrants to Sweden and compare to receipt by natives.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the institutional background, reports statistical information and surveys the literature on the immigrant‐native disparity in Social Assistance receipt.Findings – Most out‐payment for Social Assistance in Sweden refers to foreign‐born persons, a category comprising 14 percent of the population. Immigrants tend to assimilate out of Social Assistance receipt. However, receipt continues to be higher many years after immigration among immigrants from non‐rich countries than for natives with several identical characteristics. The elevated probabilities of Social Assistance receipt among immigrants from non‐rich countries are interpreted to be mainly due to failed integration into the labor market at the destination.Practical implications – Policies for integrating immigrants into the labor market ar...
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Patterns of Social Assistance receipt in Sweden
International Journal of Social Welfare, 2004Co-Authors: Thomas Andrén, Björn GustafssonAbstract:This article analyses the situation of Swedish-born people who became first-time receivers of Social Assistance in 1987 and 1992. The macroeconomic situation at the time of entry was rather different for the two cohorts and the number of new entrances increased by almost 50%. Much of the increase consisted of young adults and experience of Social Assistance has been shown to be fairly widespread among persons under the age of 25. Bridging the period when individuals are supported by their parents to their becoming established as wage earners has become an important function of Social Assistance in Sweden. The pattern of Social Assistance receipt is rather heterogeneous across new recipients. The complex pattern of receipt means that the duration of Social Assistance can appear to vary depending on one's choice of perspective. On the one hand, the median duration of Social Assistance receipt is as low as two years when an eleven-year follow-up period is applied. On the other hand, among people who receive Social Assistance during a given year, as many as half had entered receipt more than four years earlier.
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Assessing non-use of Social Assistance
European Journal of Social Work, 2002Co-Authors: Björn GustafssonAbstract:Non-use of income tested Social benefits has many causes. Three hypotheses on non-use of Social Assistance based on data for Sweden collected in 1985 and 1997 are investigated. The results indicate some support for the view that it is more Socially acceptable to apply for Social Assistance when a larger proportion of the population are receivers. Non-use of Social Assistance seems to be widespread. There are no signs of non-users as a fraction of those eligible changing across the years. Among the eligible, household income per capita as recorded the year before the interview was found to be negatively related to use. This indicates that people who expect to receive larger sums of Social Assistance are more likely to take up Social Assistance than those who expect smaller amounts.
Kjetil A. Van Der Wel - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Disentangling the dynamics of Social Assistance: A linked survey-Register data cohort study of long-term Social Assistance recipients in Norway.
PloS one, 2020Co-Authors: Kristian Heggebø, Espen Dahl, Kjetil A. Van Der WelAbstract:Social Assistance is a means-tested benefit that is supposed to be a short-term, temporary economic support. Understanding why some individuals are in repeated or continuous need of Social Assistance is thus of obvious policy relevance, but the dynamics of Social Assistance receipt remain poorly understood. In 2005, a survey among long-term recipients of Social Assistance in Norway collected data on (a) childhood disadvantages, (b) health status, (c) health behaviors, (d) psychological resources, and (e) Social ties, in addition to basic sociodemographic information. This rich survey data has been linked with tax register data from 2005–2013, enabling us to explore the detailed characteristics of long-term Social Assistance recipients who are unable to reach financial self-sufficiency. Results from linear probability models show that surprisingly few of the 28 explanatory variables are statistically associated with Social Assistance dynamics, with two important exceptions: People with drug problems and immigrants both have a much higher probability of Social Assistance receipt. Yet overall, it is challenging to ‘predict’ Social Assistance dynamics, indicating that randomness most likely plays a non-negligible role. The 28 explanatory variables do a far better job in predicting both labor market success (employment), labor market preparation (work assessment allowance), and labor market withdrawal (disability benefit utilization). Thus, there seems to be something distinctive about the processes leading to continued Social Assistance recipiency, where randomness could be a more influential force.
Kevin Milligan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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incentive effects of Social Assistance a regression discontinuity approach
Journal of Econometrics, 2008Co-Authors: Thomas Lemieux, Kevin MilliganAbstract:Before 1989, childless Social Assistance recipients in Quebec under age 30 received much lower benefits than recipients over age 30. We use this sharp discontinuity in policy to estimate the effects of Social Assistance on various labour market outcomes using a regression discontinuity approach. We find strong evidence that more generous Social Assistance benefits reduce employment. The estimates exhibit little sensitivity to the degree of flexibility in the specification, and perform very well when we control for unobserved heterogeneity using a first difference specification. Finally, we show that commonly used difference-in-differences estimators may perform poorly with inappropriately chosen control groups.
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incentive effects of Social Assistance a regression discontinuity approach
2004Co-Authors: Thomas Lemieux, Kevin MilliganAbstract:We examine the incentive effects of transfer programs using a unique policy episode. Prior to 1989, Social Assistance recipients without children in Quebec who were under age 30 received benefits 60 percent lower than recipients older than 30. We use this sharp discontinuity in policy to estimate the effects of Social Assistance on various labour market outcomes and on living arrangements using a regression discontinuity approach. We find strong evidence that more generous Social Assistance benefits reduce employment, and more suggestive evidence that they affect marital status and living arrangements. The regression discontinuity estimates exhibit little sensitivity to the degree of flexibility in the specification, and perform very well when we control for unobserved heterogeneity using a first difference specification. Finally, we show that commonly used difference-in-difference estimators may perform poorly when control groups are inappropriately chosen.
Armando Barrientos - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Justice-based Social Assistance:
Global social policy, 2016Co-Authors: Armando BarrientosAbstract:What are the main objectives of Social protection institutions in developing countries? What should be their scope and reach? What is the source of their legitimacy? Finding appropriate answers to these questions is essential to understanding, and shaping, the emergence of welfare institutions in low- and middle-income countries. Most available answers rely on instrumental arguments. Few make reference to normative principles. This article draws on three concepts from Rawls – Social justice as regulating cooperation, the Social minimum, and the need for a freestanding political notion of Social justice – to develop a coherent argument for grounding Social Assistance on Social justice. In line with this argument, it identifies some parameters for a justice-based Social Assistance. This article then discusses, with examples, the tensions existing between a Social justice-based Social minimum and ‘real’ Social Assistance institutions emerging in developing countries.
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Social Assistance in Developing Countries
2013Co-Authors: Armando BarrientosAbstract:The rapid spread of large-scale and innovative Social transfers in the developing world has made a key contribution to the significant reduction in global poverty over the last decade. Explaining how flagship anti-poverty programmes emerged, this book provides the first comprehensive account of the global growth of Social Assistance transfers in developing countries. Armando Barrientos begins by focusing on the ethical and conceptual foundations of Social Assistance, and he discusses the justifications for assisting those in poverty. He provides a primer on poverty analysis, and introduces readers to the theory of optimal transfers. He then shifts the focus to practice, and introduces a classification of Social Assistance programmes to help readers understand the diversity in approaches and design in developing countries. The book concludes with an analysis of the financing and politics of the emerging institutions and of their potential to address global poverty.
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The rise of Social Assistance in Brazil
Development and Change, 2013Co-Authors: Armando BarrientosAbstract:The rise of Social Assistance in Brazil has been remarkable. The 1988 Constitution signalled a renewed ‘Social contract’ leading to citizenship-based Social Assistance providing guaranteed income to older and disabled people in poverty. Municipal activism in the 1990s extended the provision of direct transfers to all households in poverty through Bolsa Escola and other programmes later consolidated into Bolsa Familia. This article studies the origins and evolution of Social Assistance institutions in Brazil, paying due attention to the role of ideas and politics.
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Social citizenship for the global poor the worldwide spread of Social Assistance
International Journal of Social Welfare, 2013Co-Authors: Lutz Leisering, Armando BarrientosAbstract:The notion of citizenship has universalistic claims, but in practice citizenship goes along with exclusions. Households in poverty are a test case. Social Assistance for those in poverty is a rather unlikely source of citizenship because it blends inclusion and exclusion, decommodification and commodification. But we argue that the development of Social Assistance since the 1950s (in the global North) and since the late 1990s (in the global South) has extended Social citizenship. In the South, innovative large-scale ‘Social cash transfer’ programmes are reaching significant sections of the population. This testifies to the renewed role of (Southern) nation-states within ‘layered’ global citizenship. Unlike earlier studies, we investigate Northern and Southern Social Assistance together, applying a common theoretical framework derived from T. H. Marshall's writings on citizenship and on Social Assistance. While Social citizenship has become more inclusive, we also discuss new exclusions and stratifications that go along with Social security-based citizenship.
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Social Assistance in Developing Countries
2013Co-Authors: Armando BarrientosAbstract:In a comparatively short period of time, programmes providing direct transfers in cash and in kind to households in poverty have expanded to reach between 740 million and 1 billion people in the South. The book Social Assistance in Developing Countries provides a comprehensive account of the global growth of Social Assistance transfer programmes in developing countries. Social Assistance describes programmes and policies addressing poverty and vulnerability. In the ?golden age? of European welfare states, Social Assistance was seen as a residual institution and expected to wither away. In the last two decades, developing countries have introduced or expanded innovative forms of Social Assistance contributing to the reduction of global poverty. (?)
Kristian Heggebø - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Disentangling the dynamics of Social Assistance: A linked survey-Register data cohort study of long-term Social Assistance recipients in Norway.
PloS one, 2020Co-Authors: Kristian Heggebø, Espen Dahl, Kjetil A. Van Der WelAbstract:Social Assistance is a means-tested benefit that is supposed to be a short-term, temporary economic support. Understanding why some individuals are in repeated or continuous need of Social Assistance is thus of obvious policy relevance, but the dynamics of Social Assistance receipt remain poorly understood. In 2005, a survey among long-term recipients of Social Assistance in Norway collected data on (a) childhood disadvantages, (b) health status, (c) health behaviors, (d) psychological resources, and (e) Social ties, in addition to basic sociodemographic information. This rich survey data has been linked with tax register data from 2005–2013, enabling us to explore the detailed characteristics of long-term Social Assistance recipients who are unable to reach financial self-sufficiency. Results from linear probability models show that surprisingly few of the 28 explanatory variables are statistically associated with Social Assistance dynamics, with two important exceptions: People with drug problems and immigrants both have a much higher probability of Social Assistance receipt. Yet overall, it is challenging to ‘predict’ Social Assistance dynamics, indicating that randomness most likely plays a non-negligible role. The 28 explanatory variables do a far better job in predicting both labor market success (employment), labor market preparation (work assessment allowance), and labor market withdrawal (disability benefit utilization). Thus, there seems to be something distinctive about the processes leading to continued Social Assistance recipiency, where randomness could be a more influential force.
