Evaluating the performance of means-tested benefits in Bulgaria

Little is known about the effectiveness of means-tested benefits in Bulgaria. Using individual and household level data, I analyse the performance of two social assistance and two means- tested child benefits. I find that the programmes reach a very small proportion of the households with incomes below a relative poverty line. Furthermore, the transfers are characterized with very high non-take up and inclusion of non-entitled or non-poor recipients. Poverty rates decrease by a small degree among benefit clients and yet, the impact is insufficient to affect overall poverty, or for the benefits to achieve their ultimate goals

Evaluating the performance of means-tested benefits in Bulgaria

Using household survey data and microsimulation techniques, we analyse the performance of three means-tested benefits in Bulgaria. We find that the transfers reach a small proportion of households with incomes below a relative poverty line, they have high non take-up rates, and large proportions of the recipients are neither poor nor entitled to receive the benefits. Unsurprisingly, although an important income source for poor households, the benefits have a very small impact on reducing the poverty rates. We show that our results are robust to potential underreporting of benefit receipt in the household survey. Finally, we analyse the effect of five reform scenarios, one of which fiscally neutral, on poverty and find that there is a large scope for policy improvement

THz time-domain spectroscopic investigations of thin films

THz time domain spectroscopy is a powerful technique enabling the investigation of different materials in the far-infrared frequency range. Even if nowadays this technique is well established, its application to very thin films remains particularly difficult. We investigated the utilization of THz spectroscopy on samples of micrometric thickness with the aim to disentangle multiple reflections and to measure with high accuracy the absolute values of the material parameters. We implemented an experimental and data analysis procedure that can be applied to free-standing single-layers or multi-layers samples. Specifically, we report on the experimental investigation by THz time domain spectroscopy of two samples: a test sample made of two layers of known thickness and materials; and a second sample, that is of a great interest for cultural heritage studies, made of a thin film of ink layered on a thicker support. Moreover, we describe in details the data analysis and fitting procedures needed to extract the material parameters from the experimental results.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1610.0102

Research note: The effect of different indexation scenarios on child poverty in the UK

Using the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD and Family Resources Survey, we investigate what would have happened to child poverty in the UK in the periods 2010/11-2015/16 and 2015/16-2020/21 under a range of different indexation scenarios of children's benefits. We find that between 2010/11 and 2015/16 both the relative and absolute child poverty rates would have been lower if children's benefits were uprated by RPI or if the government had introduced the Child Tax Credit uprating package it promised in 2010. Uprating children's benefits up to 2020/21 as announced by the government in the Autumn Financial Statement in 2014 would result in real benefit cuts and increase in child poverty. However, triple lock indexation of children's benefits would sustain their real value and would reduce child poverty rates substantially

Evaluating the performance of means-tested benefits in Bulgaria

Little is known about the effectiveness of means-tested benefits in Bulgaria. Using individual and household level data, I analyse the performance of two social assistance and two means-tested child benefits. I find that the programmes reach a very small proportion of the households with incomes below a relative poverty line. Furthermore, the transfers are characterized with very high non-take up and inclusion of non-entitled or non-poor recipients. Poverty rates decrease by a small degree among benefit clients and yet, the impact is insufficient to affect overall poverty, or for the benefits to achieve their ultimate goals

The effect of tax-benefit changes on the income distribution in 2008-2014

More than half of the EU countries have become poorer and more unequal since the start of the crisis in 2008. Despite lack of timely household micro data, using microsimulation techniques with up-to-date information on policy rules enables us to estimate the direct effect of tax-benefit policy changes in 2008-2014 on the income distribution, poverty and inequality levels in 10 EU countries, as well as track most recent trends by evaluating policy effects in 2013-2014. We identify and quantify these effects using the EU tax-benefit model EUROMOD to construct relevant counterfactual scenarios. Our results indicate that among these countries, most managed to pursue policies without adverse distributional effects, despite of challenging economic problems in this period. However, this has been accompanied by reductions in household income in several countries. There have also been some cases of clearly regressive changes in particular policy instruments. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of comprehensive regular indexation to avoid the erosion of benefit amounts and tax thresholds over time, and specific population groups systematically gaining or losing relative to others

The effect of tax-benefit changes on the income distribution in EU countries since the beginning of the economic crisis

We compare the distributional effects of policy changes introduced in the period 2008-2013 in twelve EU countries using the EU microsimulation model EUROMOD. The countries, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and the UK, chose different policy mixes to achieve varying degrees of fiscal consolidation or expansion. We find that comparisons of the size and distributional effects of policy changes over time are sensitive to the counterfactual assumption that is adopted in adjusting 2008 policies for changes in prices and incomes over the period. Nevertheless, it is clear that the direct tax, public pension and cash benefit changes had broadly progressive effects across the pre-policy change income distributions, except in Germany, Estonia and Lithuania. Including increases in VAT alters the comparative picture by making the policy packages appear more regressive, to varying extents. The paper also explores the implications of the policy changes for measures of risk of poverty and examines the incidence of the changes by age

A lost decade?: decomposing the effect of 2001-11 tax-benefit policy changes on the income distribution in EU countries

This paper examines the extent to which tax and benefit policy changes introduced in the period 2001-11 had a poverty- or inequality-reducing effect. We assess whether the period was indeed a “missed opportunity” for policy changes to make a difference to poverty reduction since the Lisbon Treaty, given the general lack of improvement shown by poverty indicators. Our analysis uses the tax-benefit model EUROMOD and covers seven diverse EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom. We apply the Bargain and Callan (2010) decomposition approach, extending it by separating the effect due to structural policy changes and the indexation effect. We find that the latter was typically more effective in alleviating poverty and inequality than changes to the structure of policies. In fact, most of the structural changes that governments introduced, especially in the 2007-11 crisis-onset period, had poverty and inequality-increasing effects. We find considerable variation between countries in how different policy instruments have been adjusted, and in the effects of these adjustments by income, by age and by household composition, showing the importance of understanding them together, rather than discussing just some in isolation