Suchergebnisse

This paper analyses retrospectively economic studies of poverty carried out in Spain since the decade of the eighties, mainly focusing on two aspects: measuring poverty and policies against poverty. After examining the basic methodological decisions involved in studies of poverty, we review the most noteworthy contributions regarding measurements of poverty in Spain, organizing them on the basis of the main statistical source used. Likewise, we examine the main contributions of a political nature in connection with the fight against poverty, distinguishing between direct redistribution policies and policy implications in respect to the links of poverty with the economic and social context. ; El presente artículo realiza un análisis retrospectivo sobre el estudio económico de la pobreza en España desde los años ochenta, centrando la atención fundamentalmente en dos aspectos: la medición de la pobreza y las políticas frente a la pobreza. Así, tras examinar las principales decisiones metodológicas que conlleva el estudio de la pobreza, revisamos las aportaciones más destacadas relativas a la medición de la pobreza en España, organizándolas en función de la principal fuente estadística empleada. De igual manera, examinamos las principales contribuciones de corte político relacionadas con la lucha contra la pobreza, discriminando entre políticas directas de redistribución e implicaciones políticas derivadas de las conexiones de la pobreza con el medio económico y social.

In recent years the differences in the institutional structure across the
Euro area countries have become a cause of concern, both for some individual
Member States and for the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union
(EMU). In this paper we analyse the inequality in institutional quality
across Euro area countries and estimate which factors of public and private
institutions contribute most to overall inequality in institutional quality.
To this end, we consider the institutional indicators of the Global
Competitiveness Index (GCI) from the World Economic Forum (WEF) during the
period 2007-2017, with the most disaggregated data possible. Our findings
support the call for structural reforms, particularly in the areas of ethics
and corruption (in the public sphere but also in the business environment),
undue influence on the judiciary and government decisions, and protection of
property rights, as the major sources of inequality in institutional
quality.

The institutional characteristics of the 19 Euro countries, such as Government efficiency or undue influence or corporate ethics, have diverged in the period 2006-2015. This endangers the sustainability of the EMU, as institutional characteristics are an important element of competitiveness. We find that the overall inequality in the state of institutions across the EMU, as measured by the Gini coefficient, increased. The institutional changes across Euro area countries are linked both to the differences in the intensity of the financial and economic crisis (likely to have a two-way causality) as well as the policy responses in terms of fiscal consolidation applied. The empirical findings tend to support the call for structural reforms enhancing institutional quality in order to shorten the institutional gap between 'core' and 'periphery' Euro area countries.

This paper examines the impacts of monetary policy shocks on income mobility
in the Euro area, relying on earnings heterogeneity and income composition
channels through which monetary policy affects income distribution. From a
relative mobility perspective, upward and downward mobility are estimated
over the period 2004-2014 for the EMU countries that originated the Economic
and Monetary Union (EMU 1999). By using a vector error correction model
(VECM) approach, overall we find that an expansionary monetary policy seems
to encourage upward mobility and discourage downward mobility. By income
groups, a loose monetary policy appears to reduce downward mobility for the
upper class, while no empirical evidence can be provided to support that
monetary policy shocks alter upward mobility for the lower class. Monetary
policy shocks are especially favourable for the middle class as an
expansionary monetary policy seems to boost upward mobility. A detailed
analysis of the middle class shows that an expansionary monetary policy may
propel the upward mobility and hinder the downward mobility of the
lower-middle class, particularly favouring this income group.

A long-lasting difficulty in dealing with the subject of poverty, both in the scientific and political realms, has been the lack of analytical and methodological instruments that facilitate defining, observing and measuring accurately the social dimensions of the phenomenon. Henceforth, it is crucial to develop further indicators in order to design and implement a consistent statistical policy. After examining these issues, this paper analyses the European Union policy on poverty and, especially, the efforts done in the field of statistical policy. ; Uma dificuldade de longa data nos estudos sobre a pobreza, quer a nível académico quer a nível político, reside na escasez de instrumentos analíticos e metodológicos para definir, observar e medir as dimensões sociais da pobreza. Portanto, é importante desenvolver ferramentas e indicadores que permitam formular e implementar uma política de estatísticas consistente. Após examinar estas questões, este artigo analisa a política da União Europeia relativamente à pobreza, com destaque para a área das políticas de estatísticas.

Economic parity continues to be one of the main challenges to achieving
gender equality worldwide, even though disparities between countries in the
economic gender gap are frequently neglected. In this paper, we use a fuzzy
logic approach to measure the extent to which countries are narrowing this
gap. Specifically, we evaluate the degree to which 110 countries evolved
from 2006 to 2019 in each of the three dimensions of the World Economic
Forum?s Economic Participation and Opportunity Index (remuneration,
participation and advancement). We focus on which countries have been left
behind and to what extent they have pulled away from the rest. The findings
reveal that differences across countries in advancement gender gaps are more
evident than in the other dimensions. Moreover, while there are signs of
convergence in the closure of the gender gaps in remuneration, we do not
find such evidence for the advancement and participation gender gaps.