Projects

Abstract

This project concerns the updating of the Belgian country component for EUROMOD. It involves the following tasks: 1) Updating the input database based on the EU-SILC and HBS; 2) Documenting and building policy systems into EUROMOD; 3) Documenting, testing and validating the model; 4) Country report.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Since the 2000s, flexicurity has found traction as a policy strategy thanks to its win-win promise of meeting both companies' demand for flexibility, and workers' demand for security, through a combination of flexible labour markets and generous unemployment benefits. Recently, its basic tenets were recuperated in the European Pillar of Social Rights. Research has so far not succeeded in demonstrating the validity of flexicurity's win-win claims. We argue that this is due to its inherent conceptual vagueness, that translates itself in obscurity regarding flexicurity's expected working at the micro-level, and in overly general indicators used in empirical research. In particular, the concept's dynamic nature, i.e. the smoothing of transitions during one's work life to new employment or to welfare state coverage, is largely ignored in common operationalizations. This research project revisits flexicurity's prime claims, that we understand to be replacing job security by employment security, and guaranteeing income security, using individual and dynamic measures inspired by research on income volatility. We focus on the role of different welfare state institutions in guaranteeing income security. Our focus on European welfare states, with their vastly varying institutions, will aid in discerning to what extent flexicurity policies are effectively relevant for those in unstable careers, and which national income support policies limit income shocks.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of the present study 'Nowcasting BELMOD' is to work out a nowcasting method for the BELMOD dataset. To deal with the problem of missing recent data, nowcasting methods are increasingly being used to analyse the recent past, present or near future. We will use a parametric method. In addition we will work out and test a nowcasting approach for calculating an up-to-date poverty line.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Despite considerable efforts to reduce social exclusion and economic hardship, poverty remains a persistent problem in Europe, representing a major policy conundrum for EU welfare states. Minimum Income Schemes (MIS) are in force in all EU Member States (MS) to provide a last safety net. Yet, their effectiveness in covering and adequately supporting the poor remains by and large disappointing, be it with considerable variation across countries. While social research has addressed the performance of MIS in the EU, major questions remain. Why are MIS incapable at reducing poverty? How does their accessibility differ across EU? Who is left uncovered? In this project, I will investigate the drivers of the insufficient and yet heterogeneous capacity of MIS in protecting the most vulnerable in Europe. Concretely, I will assess the coverage, adequacy, and take-up of MIS and explain how and why they differ across EU. The main objectives are: 1) to understand the role played by MIS in providing social safety nets inside the welfare set-up; 2) to innovate the methods used to identify MIS recipients; and 3) to discern who is left uncovered, and the reasons why. Addressing shortcomings in previous research, the project will enhance our comprehension of the mechanisms behind the MIS disappointing performances and it will provide policy-oriented insights to optimize the targeting of social safety nets and to improve the effectiveness of social protection.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Fellow: Nardo Alessandro

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Atypical employment, including parttime or fixed-term employment, is on the rise, while also hybrid forms of work have started to emerge, with individuals combining various forms of employment and self-employed activities. Labour law has been "adapted" to accommodate the demand for flexible work by new non-standard work forms. Meanwhile, social insurance is still to a large extent organised around a clear distinction between wage employment and self-employment and based on the figure of the stable full-time worker. This leads to important gaps in social insurance protections. As such, a reorganisation of contemporary social protection systems around new markers of vulnerability requires an integrated and interdisciplinary re-assessment of the way we organize solidarity, taking explicit account of legal possibilities, administrative feasibility and expected gains in terms of social outcomes. This project undertakes to do an in-depth investigation into these issues, with a clear focus on the situation of the broad group of non-standard workers. Our ultimate objective is to offer viable pathways towards more adequate social protection for all. We assess vulnerability among the active population at large, yet with a specific and explicit focus on the broad group of non-standard workers: self-employed; atypical employees such as parttime, fixed term or agency workers; those combining different jobs, or employment with a self-employed activity; and those in new work forms. We ask how the increasing relevance in legal non-standard work forms can and should be accommodated by a recalibration of social protection. We add further understanding of the association between background characteristics known to be related with inadequate social protection coverage (including ethnicity, education, family type, gender, and disability). This project combines empirical social policy and poverty analyses with legal analyses in an interdisciplinary perspective: we ask what the legal implications are of using different markers of vulnerability, so as to improve social protection. Methodologically, CHANGE aims to push forward recent innovations in the measurement of living standards, financial resilience and welfare state responsiveness. To this end, we will exploit existing surveys and register data sources in quantitative analyses. In addition, we will gather new data on a broad and diverse group of non-standard workers, including different types of self-employed workers and atypical employees. This will enable us to understand the various (and often common) challenges they are confronted with, such as substandard coverage by social protection and fluctuating incomes. The impact of existing policies on vulnerable target groups, as well as legally viable policy changes will be assessed through (hypothetical household or micro) simulations. I

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Research has shown abundantly that persons with a migration background typically do less well in the labour market of their host country. Determining these disadvantages, as focussed on in previous research, is one thing, tackling them is another. In view of the developmentof adequate policy measures, it is crucial to get an insight in (i) factors that moderate the established immigrant-native gaps('moderators') and in (ii) the underlying mechanisms of these gaps ('mediators'). With this research proposal, we aim to investigate (i)and (ii) and thereby take the logical next step, both from an academic and from a societal point of view. More concretely, we will furtherexploit unique administrative data, recently linked thanks to federal agencies, to investigate theoretically established moderators of thelabour market disadvantage of first- and second-generation migrants. In addition, for the analysis of atypical employment as an entry gateto the labour market as a moderator of migrant labour market integration, we will analyse Labour Force Survey data enriched withlongitudinal register data from CBSS Datawarehouse LM&SP. With respect to investigating the mechanisms underlying the establishednative-immigrant gaps, we aim to synthesise all the theoretical stigma related to migrant workers mentioned in peer-reviewed literatureand investigate their empirical value jointly, by means of state-of-the-art vignette experiments aimed at looking into the minds ofparticipating HR specialists. Based on the insights from the earlier work packages, in a later work package a last experiment will beconducted to test fruitful interventions (e.g. volunteer work at a mainstream organisation to overcome the stigma of bad integration). Inaddition, a systematic literature review and an overarching policy paper will be realised.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Ageing is a key societal challenge. The goal of the ESFRI project SHARE is to build a distributed infrastructure to collect a data set that offers researchers and policy makers a state-of-the-art instrument to study in a detailed and multidisciplinary way the topic of ageing, and the challenges it poses. The SHARE data set is a unique ex-ante harmonized data set of cross-national, comparable microlevel panel data on physical and cognitive health, living conditions, socioeconomic status, and social networks of 140,000 European individuals aged 50 and over, covering 28 countries. The data set has become a pivotal source for academic research on ageing in Europe in many disciplines, such as economics, health studies, sociology, and demography. Moreover, the SHARE data set allows to address highly policy-relevant questions about ageing, and offers unique information with regard to pressing concerns such as early labor market exit, active ageing, and long-term care.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this research project we analyse the impact on inequality and poverty of tax-benefit policies aimed at making our society carbon neutral (further referred to as 'carbon-neutral policies'). How can these policies be designed in such a way that the poor are at least not made worse off, and/or even can improve their living standards? The project will focus on Belgium as an exploratory case and on a selection of policies. This means that for Belgium we will develop an environmentally extended version of the microsimulation model Euromod to examine distributional impacts of policy mixes in the domain of just transition. We select for this project to empirically analyse policies that focus on housing energy and that aim for a rapid transition to renewable energy sources. Housing energy is a major source of emissions, especially for poor households. As is illustrated currently by the energy crisis following the war in Ukraine, these households are especially vulnerable for sudden hikes in energy prices if no policy action is taken and they may not have the means to invest in carbon-neutral technologies; this risks getting poor households trapped in the longer term in high carbon and expensive energy sources. Policies that combine social and ecological goals may create a double dividend, and this project aims to make clear how this can be done.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

We generate hypothetical household simulations that allow to compare the generosity of social assistance provisions and minimum income protection packages between Eastern-Asian and Western-European welfare states around the year 2020.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The use of an innovative type of social assistance, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, has spread across Latin America and the rest of the world. Yet, there is still debate as to whether they are effective in reaching their goal of reducing current and future poverty. Moreover, despite the multidimensional view on wellbeing reflected in the programs, both evaluation and targeting of beneficiaries is generally based on unidimensional measures of wellbeing. In addition, whether alternative designs of CCT programs could achieve improved outcomes has received relatively limited attention. Against this background, I will investigate the possibilities and implications of using a multidimensional framework to target and evaluate CCT programs. I will enrich the possibilities of ex-ante microsimulation analyses, by a) building on the information that ex-post impact evaluations provide on the effects of CCT programs and b) coupling multidimensional measures of wellbeing to microsimulation models.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Fellow: Panagamuwa Gamage Sakura

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Although the rapid disclosure of timely government data on labour market positions and benefit receipt was extremely helpful during the COVID 19 pandemic, the existing data infrastructure is not properly configured to monitor the impact of sudden shocks for several reasons: (1) data and indicators that are timely enough to swiftly monitor impact are supplied by separate government agencies and social security organisations at the aggregate level, which makes these data unsuitable to track transitions between social protection systems, while linked data at the individual level is only available with too long a delay to be useful for rapid monitoring. (2) While the household situation (e.g. having a working partner or not, or having children) is of key importance to gauge the living conditions of individuals, timely data concerns individuals rather than households. (3) Timely data includes information on those persons who are actually eligible to benefits or policy measures under current legislation, excluding those not entitled to social protection. This means that the degree of social protection and the impact of the pandemic on the income of those who fell through the cracks of the safety net remained elusive. The BE-FAST project builds the necessary data infrastructure to rapidly monitor social and labour market developments to guide future policy responses.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

SHARE-ERIC is one of the largest research infrastructures in human sciences in Europe. The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a micro data set on health, socio-economic status, and social networks of 140,000 individuals aged 50+ in 27 European countries and Israel. Since 2004, the SHARE project has completed eight waves, one every two-years (480,000 interviews), plus two other waves in 2020 and 2021 dedicated to the impact of COVID-19. The anonymized data enable registered researchers to analyze the health, social, and economic life dimensions of the ageing population. By July 2021, more than 3,000 scientific publications are based on SHARE data. Also national and international institutions such as the European Union rely on SHARE data to construct cross-country comparable statistics on ageing. The applicants, CSB (UA) and CREPP (ULg), have been associated to the SHARE project from the beginning and act as Country Teams in charge of the project for the Dutch and French speaking population, respectively. From the creation of the SHARE-ERIC Consortium in 2011, Belgian federal entities supported the SHARE project in Belgium: BELSPO covers coordination costs and FWO and FWB cover fieldwork costs upon the Dutch and French speaking population. With the current project we aim to continuate the funding of the essential coordination activities of the SHARE project.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

SHARE-ERIC is one of the largest research infrastructures in human sciences in Europe. The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a micro data set on health, socio-economic status, and social networks of 140,000 individuals aged 50+ in 27 European countries and Israel. Since 2004, the SHARE project has completed eight waves, one every two-years (480,000 interviews), plus two other waves in 2020 and 2021 dedicated to the impact of COVID-19. The anonymized data enable registered researchers to analyze the health, social, and economic life dimensions of the ageing population. By July 2021, more than 3,000 scientific publications are based on SHARE data. Also national and international institutions such as the European Union rely on SHARE data to construct cross-country comparable statistics on ageing. The applicants, CSB (UA) and CREPP (ULg), have been associated to the SHARE project from the beginning and act as Country Teams in charge of the project for the Dutch and French speaking population, respectively. From the creation of the SHARE-ERIC Consortium in 2011, Belgian federal entities supported the SHARE project in Belgium: BELSPO covers coordination costs and FWO and FWB cover fieldwork costs upon the Dutch and French speaking population. With the current project we aim to continuate the funding of the essential coordination activities of the SHARE project.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Modern welfare states face a remarkable conundrum: despite the efforts aimed at activating the unemployed and making work pay, vacancies remain difficult to fill and joblessness perseveres. Even people facing strong financial incentives to work appear not to act upon them. The link between financial incentives and entry into work is clearly less strong than is assumed. Against this background, the fundamental question remains how accurate and valid these models are since they are still rooted in the traditional economist's notion that 'work must pay'. It may well be the case that the current financial incentives modelling is flawed and does not represent the reality of all benefit recipients. Concretely, this project will investigate welfare-to-work transitions with particular attention to low work intensity households at the fringes of the labour market. The main objective is 1) to expose the interactions between employment pathways, individual characteristics, family context, work history and the tax-benefit system; 2) to innovate the modelling of financial work incentives by introducing novel factors; and 3) to examine to what extent the (re-)modelled incentives are actually associated with transitions into work and out of poverty. This way, the research plan will allow us to 1) address important shortcomings in prior research, which is critical for enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying disappointing labour market outcomes; and 2) optimise social policy.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Fellow: Aerts Elise

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The relation of targeting to social outcomes is a hot topic in social policy literature. This debate focuses on the relation between targeting and the redistribution achieved by the welfare state. Some argue that welfare provisions should disproportionally benefit lower incomes, efficiently achieving redistribution at a relatively low cost (Goodin & Le Grand, 1987), whereas other scholars have argued for the so-called "paradox of redistribution" (Korpi and Palme, 1998). Welfare states that target less, would achieve better redistributive outcomes, as more universal welfare states garner more support from middle class voters for larger social budgets. In recent years, doubts have risen on whether this paradox still holds (Brady & Bostic, 2015; Marx et al., 2016), re-opening the debate on optimal targeting design and effectiveness. A neglected issue so-far relates to the responsiveness of targeted policies in a context of flexible labour market careers. Over the past decades, atypical labour contracts have become more prevalent (Schoukens, 2020). Qualitative research has shown that this evolution led to highly complex careers at the bottom of the labour market, where vulnerable employees combine different types of contracts and alternate employment and unemployment spells (Hills, 2014; Trlifajová & Hurrle, 2019). In such a context, targeted social policies will have highly varying impacts on experienced hardship depending on the speed with which they react to changed circumstances. The responsiveness and accessibility of targeted policies is not only related to their institutional design, but also to their implementation. To the extent that policy makers aim for tailor-made targeted support, the implementation of targeted social policies may be devolved over different policy levels, often the national and the local level (Kazepov, 2010; De Wilde and Marchal, 2019). In such a context, policy makers at different levels may experience incentives that hamper the poverty reducing effectiveness of targeted social policies (Bonoli and Trein, 2016). In order to asses the potential of targeted benefits as effective social policy measures in a profoundly changed labour market context, it is necessary to take account of the interplay of different design options and their implementation, in terms of responsiveness and poverty-fighting effectiveness. Taken together, this research into the design, implementation and effectiveness of targeted policies, will ultimately feed into an exciting new research agenda on how welfare states as a whole can be adapted to a changed world.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Fellow: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Vrouwen bereiken consequent slechtere resultaten op de arbeidsmarkt dan mannen, in termen van lonen, participatiegraden en werkloosheid. Deze verschillen zijn nog groter geworden door de economische crisis die is veroorzaakt door de huidige Covid-19-pandemie. Recente literatuur benadrukt dat: (i) een belangrijk deel van deze kloven te wijten is aan loondiscriminatie door monopsonistische werkgevers die de lage elasticiteit van het aanbod van vrouwen aan de individuele onderneming benutten; (ii), hoe koppels gezamenlijke beslissingen nemen met betrekking tot het arbeidsaanbod en baankeuzes, is belangrijk voor het begrijpen van deze kloven. Familiebeslissingen zijn het resultaat van een onderhandelingsproces tussen de leden van het huishouden, wiens voorkeuren de uitdrukking zijn van de sociale normen waaraan zij zich houden. In dit project willen we de rol van het gezin bestuderen bij het verklaren van beslissingen over het arbeidsaanbod van koppels en hun gevolgen voor genderkloven. De uitdaging is dat het arbeidsaanbod afhankelijk is van onderhandelingsposities binnen het huishouden, maar onderhandelingsposities zelf veranderen met relatieve economische prestaties binnen het huishouden. Om dit endogeniteitsprobleem op te lossen, stellen we voor om grote macro-economische schokken te gebruiken als natuurlijke experimenten. De hypothese is dat grote veranderingen in de economische omstandigheden ons een exogene variatie in de onderhandelingspositie binnen de huishoudens geven die de onderhandelingsprocedure zelf kan beïnvloeden als ze voldoende persistent zijn. In het bijzonder willen we in dit onderzoeksproject: (i) begrijpen in welke mate veranderingen in hoe de onderneming concurreert voor werknemers van elk geslacht  dat wil zeggen, genderkloven in monopsonistische concurrentie  de evolutie van genderkloven op de arbeidsmarkt in de economische cyclus verklaren; (ii) om deze resultaten te gebruiken om te onderzoeken hoe het besluitvormingsproces binnen het huishouden (zoals bepaald door sociale normen over genderrollen in het gezin) verandert als gevolg van de economische omgeving. Eerst zullen we een raamwerk ontwikkelen waarmee we een oorzakelijk verband kunnen leggen tussen macro-economische schokken en genderkloven op de arbeidsmarkt, die leiden tot veranderingen in de onderhandelingspositie binnen het huishouden. Vervolgens zullen we analyseren hoe die veranderingen in onderhandelingspositie in het huishouden, zoals geïnstrumenteerd door de economische cyclus, de gezinsbeslissingen van het gezin beïnvloeden. Het begrijpen van de evolutie van sociale normen zou van grote waarde zijn voor het ontwerpen van beleid dat gericht is op het herdefiniëren van de gendernormen binnen het huishouden. Aangezien het banenverlies tijdens de Covid-19-pandemie bijzonder ernstig is voor vrouwen en vrouwen ook de meeste extra kinderopvangtaken geïmpliceerd door de sluiting van kleuterscholen en scholen op zich namen, zou deze crisis decennia van vooruitgang in de richting van gendergelijkheid kunnen uithollen. Ons project beoogt een leidraad te bieden om deze trend te keren door beleidsinterventies te ontwerpen die op lange termijn veranderingen in sociale normen kunnen veroorzaken.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Promoter: Merlino Luca Paolo
• Co-promoter: Winkler Roland
• Fellow: Mandrisch Lucas

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy
• Economics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research project assesses the effectiveness of targeted social policy in a context of flexible and atypical work and income patterns. It takes account of the responsiveness of targeted social policies, and of the implementation challenges different types of targeted social policies represent. Specifically, this project will focus on three research questions: i) What impact does flexible and atypical employment have on income stability? ii) What are the implications of atypical employment for the design and organization of effective targeted social protection policies? iii) How do different forms of targeting relate to social outcomes?

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Fellow: Binte Mohammad Wizan Nur Maisarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) undeniably is changing the modus operandi of local food aid organisations in almost all European countries. The aim of this research project is to examine to what extent and how precisely the interferences of European policies with national, regional and local institutions have an impact on the functioning of welfare states. We hypothesise that food aid is evolving towards a multilevel, institutionalised component of welfare provision in Europe. Our research seeks to test this hypothesis in three countries: Belgium, Lithuania and Portugal. By developing a research framework based on the Governance Analytical Framework and the concept of loose coupling, by conducting a survey at food aid organisations in different countries, by investigating the relationships between food aid and the strength of social protection systems our research will contribute to the social policy literature on the tensions between right based social protection, benevolence and charity on the one hand and between solidarity and subsidiarity on the other.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Unfortunately, food bank use is on the rise in many European member states. At the same time, poverty among the working age population is increasing in many countries while evidence points to an almost universal inadequacy of social protection systems. Interestingly, Europe provides food assistance via the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), making it a unique instrument of transnational interpersonal income redistribution. Against this background, questions can be raised about the balance between rights-based social protection and benevolent social action and the role of Europe herein. Concretely, this proposal will focus on food aid, FEAD and minimum income protection, in an attempt to gain better understanding in the relationship between the functioning of welfare states to provide adequate social safety nets on the one hand and benevolent social action in Europe on the other. First, taking a cross-European comparative approach, food bank data regarding the budgets, number of recipients, etc. will be analyzed and linked to indicators of welfare state efforts and social performances. Furthermore, we will study the profiles of food aid beneficiaries to explore their relationship with minimum income protection schemes. Lastly, estimating the financial value of food packages will allow us to examine to what extent food aid compensates for inadequate minimum incomes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Fellow: Hermans Karen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Inequality and poverty are high on the agenda of researchers, politicians, and international institutions, and fuel the public discussion at large. The IMF has labelled inequality as the 'defining challenge' of our time because it signals a lack of income mobility and opportunity, and because it has important consequences for growth and macroeconomic stability, and carries a risk of concentrating decision making in the hands of a few. In the last fifteen years also the OECD has gathered 'a significant body of evidence on the increased inequalities of income and opportunities in many countries', and concludes that inequality is 'bad and getting worse' (OECD 2018). In this proposal we start from two observations. First, and curiously enough, most existing statistics for Belgium tell a different story. Based on survey data, Horemans et al. (2011) and Van Rie and Marx (2014) conclude that the Belgian income inequality remained fairly stable between 1985 and the late 2000s. Also the OECD‐report cited above, reports a minor change in the Gini from 0.257 in 1983 to 0.264 in 2011, and even a slight decline since 2004. Similarly, Decoster et al. (2017) could not find evidence that the top incomes in Belgium have benefitted disproportionally from the economic growth since the nineties. Furthermore, the Belgian at‐risk‐of‐poverty rate has remained stable during the last decades. These findings not only stand in sharp contrast with the conclusions for many other countries; they also seem to contradict the widespread perception that inequality, poverty, material deprivation, and insecurity are on the rise. Understanding this 'paradox' is one of the central objectives of our project (and explains the project acronym). Second, Belgium remains notoriously absent from a rapidly expanding track in empirical research, which describes and analyses distributional information in a standard which emulates the framework of national accounts. This new standard is known as DIstributional National Accounts (DINA), and is essentially an extension of the methods proposed by Kuznets, who combined, in a pioneering effort, national income series (macro‐data) with income tax data (micro‐data). Recently, the upgrade of national accounts to incorporate distributional information has been initiated by the late Tony Before completing, please read carefully the instructions in the information file Call 2019 BRAIN‐be 2.0 Call 2019 'National thematic Project': BE‐PARADIS 2 Atkinson, and further developed by a scholars such as Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. In early 2018, their team at the Paris School of Economics launched the World Wealth and Income Database, which gives access to data about inequality and other macroeconomic indicators for many countries. Unfortunately, Belgium is missing from this dataset. In this project we will investigate the paradox and bring Belgium to the frontier of international research on inequality by renewed, profound, and critical inquiry of existing and fresh data, concepts, and methods..

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The BABEL project aims to narrow the gap between claim and reality with regard to BI outcomes. The project has several objectives. First, it aims to investigate the actual labour supply effects of BI. To this end, a quasi-experimental approach is applied in which we use administrative records to estimate the labour supply effects of BI based on what gets closest to a real world basic income situation: the Belgian Win-for-Life lottery. Second, to gauge the potential outcomes of BI and its different policy versions a comprehensive microsimulation exercise is conducted to estimate the first-order income distributive and budgetary effects of a set of BI proposals and their effect on work incentives in Belgium. Third, by carrying out factorial vignette experiments, the project aims to gain deeper insight into public support for the implementation of a variety of basic income schemes in Belgium, and whether and to what extent public support of basic income schemes depends on the outcomes, financing and implementation details. Fourth, BABEL will pay due attention to the on-the-ground implementation and the technical and administrative feasibility of a selection of basic income policy proposals, and it will gauge to what extent political parties and social partners as gatekeepers in the Belgian welfare state are willing to support the implementation of these schemes. Finally, the project will present a blueprint of pathways for basic income policy proposals that (1) are likely to garner sufficient support by the general public and by social partners; (2) lead to better outcomes in terms of social protection and work incentives; and (3) can inspire feasible welfare reform in Belgium.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This consortium proposal addresses the diverging fortunes of the rich, the poor and those in between. Our aim is to advance our understanding of how socioeconomic inequalities are changing, what is driving such trends and what, if anything, can be done. An undertaking of such ambition and complexity warrants an approach that combines state-of-the-art research from several disciplines. To that end, the current Methusalem grantee, the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck, is joining forces with the Centre for Urban History and the Institute for Development Studies in the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality (AIPRIL) to continue and expand its work on the topic of socioeconomic inequality, enlarging the temporal and geographical scope this topic requires. We propose a seven year research program that seeks to make methodological, theoretical, and empirical advances in this rapidly evolving research field, building on insights from economics, sociology, economic history and development studies. The research program contains four strategically selected research streams: 1) New data and tools for the measurement of inequality; 2) Curbing inequality; 3) Urbanisation and Inequality; and 4) Shocks and Inequality.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: De Herdt Tom
• Co-promoter: De Weerdt Joachim
• Co-promoter: Soens Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this study we evaluate in collaboration with CM the impact of the pro-active eligibility check on the uptake of the increased reimbursement statute in health care. We make use of an experimental design.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Department of Work and Social Economy (DWSE) – Government of Flanders and the Walloon Public Service "Economy-Employment-Research'' (WSP EER) have requested the support of the European Commission and the OECD through the TSI 2023 Flagship technical Support project: Migrant integration and talent attraction. The support is requested to present international good practices and potential initiatives for the attraction and retention of international talent and to identify potential changes to the existing economic migration frameworks in Flanders and Wallonia on this basis. In particular, the specific objective of this Project is to support Flanders and Wallonia to design, develop and implement reforms to attract and retain qualified talents. The OECD has outsourced resources to the Centre for Social Policy for implementation of the Flemish Project.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Lens Dries
• Co-promoter: Mussche Ninke

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The coalition agreement of the Flemish government 2019-2024 states the ambition to move away from categorical selectivity based on social statuses when allocating social measures and switch to allocation based on income selectivity. This also relates to policy measures within the energy domain. Renovation premiums and grid operator premiums for energy investments already use income categories. For measures within the social energy policy, categorical selection criteria still apply at present. In preparation for the switch to income selectivity for these measures, it is important to have insight into what overlap there is between beneficiaries under the current categorical selectivity and beneficiaries under income selectivity. In this research project, we estimate the share of the Flemish population that is caught by the categorical selectivity criteria, both for the total population and for the different income deciles. We examine which share of the population is captured by the income criteria and how large the overlap is between the two criteria.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The government provides various measures to financially support families with children. Such measures for families in Flanders are spread across different policy areas and across different policy levels. The most important measures can be found, on the one hand, in personal income tax in the form of tax breaks and, on the other, in social benefits in the form of family benefits. In the (federal) personal income tax (finance domain), the most important measures are the increase in the tax free allowance for dependent children, the additional increase in the tax free allowance for single persons with one or more dependent children and the refundable tax credit for dependent children. At the Flemish level, there is the Growth Package, which falls under the policy area of welfare, public health and family. With a view to possible future divisions of competence, this project will examine what optimisation is possible between the two forms of support.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Through progressive employment, it has been made attractive for incapacitated workers to return to work during or after a period of illness or absence. Indeed, such employment makes it possible that, if the work has to be adapted, or if the work can only be partially resumed, the health insurance fund benefit can be (partially) combined with a wage for the work performed. For other benefit recipients and inactives, there may also be thresholds that prevent them from participating in the labour market. In this research project, we examine which unemployment and inactivity traps exist for benefit recipients and inactives in Flanders. We examine what the financial impact would be of a system of progressive work resumption for long-term unemployed and inactive people and how the existing system can be improved.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent the objective of partial disposition, namely to meet the highest needs of the person concerned, is achieved. The research must also provide insight into the way in which the budget is used and whether or not the goal can be achieved as a result.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Tim Goedemé will participate in the academic high-level committee for a just transition, organised by Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and the Grean Deal, Zakia Khattabi. He will contribute to this committee's report on how a just transition can be put in place in Belgium.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) data can be used as an input data set for the European microsimulation model EUROMOD. In this project we update the HFCS data of Luxembourg as input data set for EUROMOD. Also relevant policy systems will be updated and developed.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Kuypers Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In 2024 Belgium holds the presidency of the Council of European Union. Belgium has always played a pioneering role, including in the context of the respective EU Presidencies, in the development of a more social Europe, stressing the importance of developing joint instruments in the fight against poverty, exclusion, but also against social fraud in European mobility. But the road is still long. Social convergence is a long-term work, with external shocks like the corona crisis throwing a spanner in the works. There are numerous challenges ahead for Europe, as well as for individual member states. From this perspective, Belgium is preparing for the 2024 EU Belgian Presidency and will start in 2022 to define substantive priorities in social policy through a dialogue with stakeholders. This project offers scientific support for the preparation of this mission. With a multidisciplinary, inter-institutional, national as well as European team of experts in European social policy, we offer scientific support in preparing the social component of the Belgian EU presidency.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Research into the poverty-reducing effect of the social economy in Flanders by means of a quantitative and qualitative method, gauging the consequences of social employment for the incomes and quality of life of those concerned.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

COVIVAT assesses the consequences of the COVID-19 social distancing measures on the incomes of Belgian individuals and households. The aim is to generate insights that can support policy makers in limiting the social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, and that may feed into post-Corona social policy.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

We build further on the insights and recommendations of the VISA report, and investigate the feasibility of a "nominal poverty indicator". We develop a proposal on the possible construction of such an indicator, taking account of the quality criteria for valid and robust indicators, data availability and implementation potential.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project will add to the annual reports on the evolution of the social situation and social protection in Belgium, by extending the instruments used, using policy indicators for a more timely assessment, also with regard to the COVID crisis, placing the reports and their findings in the broader literature, and listing key challenges.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand ESFRI. UA provides ESFRI research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes, which make welfare transfers conditional on human capital investment, have grown to dominate the social protection sector in Latin America since their introduction in the late 1990s. Positive evaluation results prompted the replication of early CCT programmes globally. However, little is known about the merit of key design elements of existing CCT programmes, which may have a substantial impact on their performance. Moreover, the programmes' de facto design and implementation can be argued to be inconsistent with the theoretical rationale of making transfers conditional, ultimately casting doubt on whether CCT programmes live up to their status of development panacea. This project seeks to address this gap in literature by examining how certain design features affect the equity and efficiency of Latin American CCT programmes. The proposal distinguishes four research phases. First, a child-centred wellbeing indicator is developed, which may be used for targeting or evaluation purposes of CCT programmes. Second, alternative targeting methods are explored to comment on the appropriateness of existing programmes to target income-poor households. Third, the project analyses whether conditionality of transfers leads to a lower take-up among vulnerable households. Finally, the net distributional impact of CCT programmes is estimated, taking the fiscal implications of non-contributory welfare programmes into consideration.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Fellow: Van Meensel Lena

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The COVIVAT consortium is a collaboration between three research groups of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Universiteit Antwerpen. The consortium aims to map the social consequences of the spread of the coronavirus on the incomes of Belgian families, and to generate scientific insights that can support the socio-economic policy to limit the social consequences of the corona crisis and help shape the post-corona policy.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

My research takes place in the nexus of labour, income and the welfare state, with a particular focus on socioeconomic inequality and minimum income protection in postindustrial societies. I have over the past few years secured research funding from Methusalem, FWO and Belspo, allowing for an ambitious research program, time allowing. My sabbatical leave should allow me to make significant progress, notably in the following areas. Research line 1: Work, income and poverty in postindustrial societies. In addition to journal articles I am working on a book on the future of minimum income protection, which I hope to finish during my sabbatical leave. Research line 2: Understanding inequality. This topic features prominently in my 7 year Methusalem grant. Goal: during my stay as an Advanced Research Collaborative at CUNY - a leading research center worldwide - I will develop and deepen the Methusalem research program and set up cooperation. I am also working on a FWO project on the impact of organised labour and civil society on inequality, jointly with Zach Parolin, at Columbia University. Goal: to finish the first part of the research program. Research line 3: Migration. An ongoing BELSPO research project looks at the labour-market trajectories of migrants. CUNY's Graduate Center and other New York institutions are home to some leading migration scholars. My goal is to enrich my understanding of current migration research and initiate further collaboration in this area. Research line 4: Wealth. This is a key topic of research at the Stone Center at CUNY. Core faculty Janet Gornick and Salvatore Morelli are contributing to a special journal issue I am editing. It is my goal to finalize this and to initiate further joint work.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

My research takes place in the nexus of labour, income and the welfare state, with a particular focus on socioeconomic inequality and minimum income protection in postindustrial societies. I have over the past few years secured research funding from Methusalem, FWO and Belspo, allowing for an ambitious research program, time allowing. My sabbatical leave should allow me to make significant progress, notably in the following areas. Research line 1: Work, income and poverty in postindustrial societies. In addition to journal articles I am working on a book on the future of minimum income protection, which I hope to finish during my sabbatical leave. Research line 2: Understanding inequality. This topic features prominently in my 7 year Methusalem grant. Goal: during my stay as an Advanced Research Collaborative at CUNY - a leading research center worldwide - I will develop and deepen the Methusalem research program and set up cooperation. I am also working on a FWO project on the impact of organised labour and civil society on inequality, jointly with Zach Parolin, at Columbia University. Goal: to finish the first part of the research program. Research line 3: Migration. An ongoing BELSPO research project looks at the labour-market trajectories of migrants. CUNY's Graduate Center and other New York institutions are home to some leading migration scholars. My goal is to enrich my understanding of current migration research and initiate further collaboration in this area. Research line 4: Wealth. This is a key topic of research at the Stone Center at CUNY. Core faculty Janet Gornick and Salvatore Morelli are contributing to a special journal issue I am editing. It is my goal to finalize this and to initiate further joint work.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project we generate immediate data to monitor the impact of different exit strategies on incomes and poverty. Although the macroeconomic impact of the lockdown measures on the Belgian economy is unprecedented, there is currently no data available to assess the social consequences of the lockdown or to estimate the impact of COVID-19 policies on incomes and poverty. This severely affects legislators' capacity to put effective measures in place. We use advanced microsimulation modelling and forecasting techniques, in the short-term, (1) to document the impact of the COVID-19 economic shock on incomes and poverty; (2) to assess the effectiveness of policies implemented to reduce the loss of incomes during the initial spread of infections; and (3) to support an evidence-based COVID-19 exit strategy by estimating the poverty impact of various scenarios. Our forecasts will support legislators in designing social and economic support measures that adequately target the most vulnerable individuals and households. In the medium-term, we (1) integrate macro-economic scenario's on economic recovery and sectoral unemployment to produce long-term forecasts of the consequences on household incomes and poverty under a variety of growth and employment scenarios; and (2) we calibrate our models with administrative data sources so that future policy responses to expected rebounds in the number of infections in the months and years to come can be monitored using timely data.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The first aim of this project is to transfer data on reference budgets gathered in several earlier EU-financed projects to the JRC research center in Ispra for use in the ABSPO project (The Measurement of Absolute Poverty in Europe). The second aim is to provide advice to the ABSPO researchers on various aspects of this project..

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The rapid aging of our societies poses enormous policy challenges. To evaluate aging policies and measure well-being in old age, policy makers and researchers need an operational yardstick of well-being. Since well-being is a multidimensional notion, one needs to weight the outcomes in the different well-being dimensions. Existing well-being measures for older persons typically use a common weighting scheme for all individuals and are thereby neglecting differences in older persons' view on what is important in life. The first objective of this research project will be to develop a multidimensional well-being measure for older persons with respect for individual variation in opinions on the good life. Such a "preference-based" approach requires data about the view on the "good life". The second objective of this project will be to construct a survey instrument, called Well-BOA (Well-Being at Old Age), that allows us to obtain reliable information on the view on the "good life" of older persons in a simple and direct way. The survey instrument will be tested in a series of on-line survey experiments and implemented among a representative sample of the LISS panel and the SHARE survey. Finally, we aim to explore two ways in which the results can help to improve policies: first, by identifying the "worst-off" and, second, by providing a measurement toolbox that is sensitive to inequality of well-being among the older population.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The cohesiveness of civil society has long been central to explanations of cross-national differences in poverty and income inequality. Workers' unions, in particular, have been at the core of theories relating to class-based political struggle. Similarly, civil engagement and community-based social partnerships have been cast as potential mechanisms for fostering solidarity. Decades of empirical evidence support these claims. In recent years, however, research has called into question the sustained ability of organised labour and civil society as a bulwark against rising poverty and inequality. Union membership has declined across many advanced economies in recent decades. Likewise, civil engagement across many advanced democracies has waned in recent decades. Despite these observations, few scholars have empirically investigated the changing role of organised labour and civil society in shaping social inequality in the 21st century. None has done so in a cross-national, empirically-driven investigation that accounts for both the internal threats to social cohesiveness, such as shifting composition of the population or diversifying ideologies, and the external threats to social cohesiveness, such as the structural effects of economic change. Thus, this research project proposes to investigate changes in social inequality through the lenses of two mechanisms likely to contribute to it: the shifting the role of organised labour and civil engagement in advanced democracies.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Parolin Zachary

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the updating of the Belgian country component for EUROMOD. It involves the following tasks: 1) Updating the input database based on the EU-SILC; 2) Building policy systems into EUROMOD; 3) Validation and incorporation into EUROMOD; 4) Country report.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The research aims to provide necessary and practical tools for determining updated and integrated personnel standards for Flemish residential care centers, both for care staff as well as for support staff.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand ESFRI. UA provides ESFRI research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

VISA aims to develop a set of valid and robust policy input and outcome indicators to measure the impact of policy on poverty and social exclusion in Flanders. We will make recommendations regarding the data and policy models needed to further maintain and develop the VISA indicators in the future.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Marchal Sarah
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Storms Berenice M L
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project aim is to contribute to the OECD report "The drivers of wealth concentration and it policy implication", in particular its sections on the joint distribution of wealth and income, and the policy chapter. This report is part of the joint OECD-EC project "Dimensions of Inequality".

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Kuypers Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Flanders has a variety of social measures aimed at strengthening the income situation of socially vulnerable groups. These measures are, however, scattered over different policy areas and administrations, However, in order to enhance take-up and to make progress in the fight against poverty, there is a need for (1) clear definitions of the different income and family concepts applied within social policy measures, and (2) scientifically based proposals to harmonize these income and family concepts wherever possible and desirable in order to allow for more integrated policy. With this research proposal we aim to meet these needs.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Families with disabled children combine both direct and indirect costs that likely have a negative impact on their poverty risk. First, they face higher direct costs due to the child's medical and care needs. Second, they face higher indirect costs as they need to provide more care which jeopardises the parents' engagement in the labour market. On top of that, families with disabled children often have a lower socioeconomic status than families without disabled children, increasing their poverty risk independent of having a disabled child. Many Western welfare states have implemented a set of benefits and services for families with disabled children to mitigate these direct and indirect costs. However, we lack insight in the actual effectiveness of these social policies in reaching this objective. Therefore, this research project aims to evaluate to what extent the existing set of social policies for families with disabled children in Flanders succeeds in reducing their poverty risk by increasing family income directly or indirectly. Specifically, the project will work on three related research strands. First, we will explore the non-take-up of social support for disabled children as this phenomenon can substantially impede the actual effectiveness of social policies. Second, we will look into the direct poverty reducing effect of the existing cash allowances for families with disabled children, in particular the supplemental child benefit. Finally, the indirect impact will be investigated via the causal effect of the presence of disabled children on parental employment. The budget requested within this BOF-KP project will be used to finance a data request with the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Social Security for the extension of an existing administrative dataset. Obtaining longitudinal employment information, information from the Ministry of Education and from the tax administration, will allow us to shed light on the three research strands. We will apply quantitative methods on this unique administrative dataset.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the updating of the Belgian country component for EUROMOD. It involves the following tasks: 1) Updating the input database based on the EU-SILC; 2) Building policy systems into EUROMOD; 3) Validation and incorporation into EUROMOD; 4) Country report.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this project is to further broaden the policy scope of EUROMOD in order to allow for the analysis of investment-related tax expenditures for 11 European countries. The OECD (2010) defines tax expenditures as provisions in t he tax system that reduce tax liabilities for specific groups of tax payers or specific activities and that reduce government revenue. Tax expenditures can take different farms, e.g. allowances, exemptions, deductions, rate reliefs and credits . These tax expenditures have increased over the past decades and raise concerns in terms of their potential ill effects on budget tax policy (OECD, 2010). Tax expenditures are used for several policy domains; the focus here is on those related to investment activities.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Kuypers Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Ageing is a key societal challenge. The goal of the ESFRI project SHARE is to build a distributed infrastructure to collect a data set that offers researchers and policy makers a state-of-the-art instrument to study in a detailed and multidisciplinary way the topic of ageing, and the challenges it poses. The SHARE data set is a unique ex-ante harmonised data set of cross-national, comparable microlevel panel data on health, living conditions, socioeconomic status, and social networks of more than 123,000 European individuals aged 50 and over, covering 28 countries. The data set has become a pivotal source for empirical academic research on ageing in Europe in many disciplines, such as economics, health studies, sociology, and demography. Moreover, the SHARE data set allows to address highly policy-relevant questions about ageing, and offers unique information with regard to pressing concerns such as early labour market exit, active ageing, and long-term care.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this project is twofold: 1. To modernize MIMOSIS, i.e. the current microsimulation model of the Belgian social security administration (FPS Social Security), in order to improve the possibilities for cooperation and knowledge exchange between the main actors of static microsimulation within Belgium and Europe by integrating it into EUROMOD. 2. To improve access to social protection in Belgium. The new microsimulation tool (preliminary working title: BELMOD) will be used to design and support evidence-based reforms aimed at furthering the automatization of social rights.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand ESFRI. UA provides ESFRI research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Met het proefkader willen we een voor alle betrokken actoren, en in het bijzonder de gebruikers en aanbieders, beveiligd kader creëren waarbinnen de mogelijkheden en beperkingen kunnen onderzocht worden inzake het inzetten van het persoonsvolgend budget nRTH VAPH binnen de erkende capaciteit van (semi-) residentiële ouderenzorg met eventuele tussenkomst in de zorgkost door het RIZIV, in het bijzonder WZC, CVK en DVC met bijzondere erkenning. Het werken met een proefkader biedt de sector en de betrokken administraties de nodige ruimte om de modaliteiten van de inzet in de praktijk uit te proberen en pas daarna verder regelgevend te verankeren. Cruciaal hierbij is het komen tot een sluitende financiële regeling die - voor de gebruiker eenvoudig en transparant is; - voor beide sectoren aanvaardbaar is; - voor beide administraties uitvoerbaar is. Het principe dat 'dubbele subsidiëring' vermeden dient te worden, staat hierbij voorop.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the update of the Belgian component in EUROMOD. It includes the following tasks: 1) update of the input database based on EU-SILC 2) building policy systems in EUROMOD 3) validation and inclusion in EUROMOD 4) country report.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Economists evaluate social and economic policies based on their impact on the individual well-being of the members of society. Such measurement depends mostly on the assumption that individuals behave according to well-behaved (i.e. transitive and complete) preferences. Motivated by the overwhelming empirical evidence from psychology and behavioural economics, according to which individual behavior often seems inconsistent with wellbehaved preferences, we aim at developing the methodological tools for analyzing individual welfare in the presence of such seemingly inconsistencies in the behavior of agents. For doing this we will explore an intermediate approach that is in between the agnostic approach (i.e. robust conclusions without specific explanation for the inconsistencies) and the model approach (i.e. an analysis based on a specific model explaining non well-behaved preferences). For the empirical part, we will extensively use the new and largely unexplored MEqIN data set that was gathered by the PIs of this project. This data set allows to compare several methods for measuring well-being and contains detailed information on all the adults of the selected households. In the applications we will restrict our attention to four main dimensions of well-being: health, material well-being, employment status, and the family situation. In this respect we will also recontact the surveyed households to gather extra data related to our research questions.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

There is a growing consensus in the literature that well-being is a multidimensional concept. Yet, many development programmes still rely on monetary measures of well-being to target beneficiaries and evaluate outcomes. Such measures remain blind to the differences in nonmonetary dimensions of well-being between individuals. A multidimensional framework is required to take these differences into account. The aim of this project is to develop a richer framework for assessing well-being outcomes in development projects. A key feature of this multidimensional framework is that it respects the individual opinions of the poor on the importance of different dimensions of well-being. The framework will be implemented by addressing three specific and policy-relevant questions in three different developing countries. First, the question will be investigated whether the consideration of a richer framework will have implications for the targeting of social programs in Colombia. This question will be addressed using ex ante simulation techniques. Second, the new framework will be used to study the impact of an unconditional cash transfer programme in Kenya, using an ex post difference-in-difference estimator. Finally, we will study to what extent preferences of the poor in Ethiopia can be estimated with new stated preference techniques such as a discrete choice experiment.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: De Weerdt Joachim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The sixth state reform has resulted in an additional transfer of competences from parts of the personal income tax system to Flanders, and more specifically with respect to housing taxation. This makes it possible for Flanders to implement a more integrated housing tax policy. For example, a tax shift between the different instruments of housing taxation (registration duties, property tax, dwelling bonus) is possible. The aim of this research is to map both the economic, budgetary and legal aspects of such a Flemish tax shift within the housing tax system. We start from a central scenario, of which several variants will also simulated.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Peeters Bruno

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Dit project kadert in een ESFRI-onderzoeksopdracht tussen enerzijds UA en anderzijds ESFRI. UA levert aan ESFRI de onderzoeksresultaten genoemd in de titel van het project onder de voorwaarden zoals vastgelegd in voorliggend contract.xx

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The rapid aging of our societies poses important challenges for policy makers. To evaluate the design and effectiveness of aging policies, it is essential that policy makers and researchers have an operational yardstick for measuring the degree of "successful" aging. The current project deals with the question of how the degree of successful aging can be measured. In particular, it develops a new toolbox that allows for the measurement of successful aging in a fine-grained way. This toolbox will be implemented using new data that will be collected in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Its measures will respect the preferences of older persons and will be sensitive to the distribution of successful aging in the society. None of the existing measures of successful aging in the literature have these appealing features. The project will be organized in four research streams. First, a fine-grained measure of the extent of successful aging at the individual level will be developed. The novelty of this measure will be that it is sensitive to the preferences of the older persons themselves with regards to what is important in their lives. In the second stream, a novel method to estimate the preferences of older persons will be designed and implemented. This method will be based on a series of discrete choices between vignettes and will be implemented in the 8th wave of the SHARE data set in 2018-2019. Third, a distribution-sensitive measure of the extent of successful aging at the societal level will be constructed based on the results from the earlier two research streams and insights from welfare economics. Fourth, it is expected that the measurement toolbox developed in this project will throw new light on old questions in the literature, such as the so-called satisfaction paradox. Moreover, its power to predict future mortality and health problems of older persons will be compared to existing measures. Furthermore, the distribution-sensitive measure of successful aging at the societal level will be used to compare European countries to identify best practices and investigate the role of policies and institutions on successful aging.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Fellow: Van Loon Veerle

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Welfare states that are effective in reducing poverty have high levels of social spending. Yet, changes in social spending cannot explain changes in poverty outcomes. Inequalities increased almost everywhere and so did levels of social spending, but in many countries social spending became less effective in keeping poverty at bay. So, then, why did social spending became less pro-poor in some countries but not in others? The central hypothesis of this research project is that changes in poverty outcomes across OECD countries can be explained by changes in the middle-class bias in social spending. It is expected that countries in which a larger share of social spending accrued to the middle class, experienced a decrease in welfare state redistribution. Although the influence of the middle class on redistribution is centre stage in welfare state theory, this dimension is invariably ignored in recent attempts to explain poverty outcomes. Therefore, I will (1) empirically assess changes in the middle-class bias in social spending across countries and over time; (2) estimate to what extent this is related to diverging trends in welfare state redistribution and poverty rates; and (3) test three potential mechanisms through which the influence of the middle class on social spending is exerted, derived from the main theories on welfare state redistribution. The result are expected to further our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie welfare state redistribution.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Van Lancker Wim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Publicly provided or subsidised goods and services account for about half of social expenditures in European welfare states. Obviously, this has an important impact upon the living standard of households. Nevertheless, current methods trying to include the value of services into measures of cash incomes largely fail to take into account household needs associated with these services. This project seeks to contribute to the measurement of poverty in welfare states by developing a new way to examine the impact of public services on poverty. The proposal distinguishes four research phases. First, patterns in the cost and accessibility of public services in European welfare states will be studied. Second, on the basis of a new dataset of cross-country comparable reference budgets the project aims to estimate the effect of services and cost-compensations on the budget that specific family types need at the minimum for adequate social participation. For six European countries new poverty thresholds will be estimated which take account of the needs of households and the cost for accessing essential services. Third, the estimated poverty thresholds will be extrapolated to the population by developing a new approach which combines information from reference budgets and household expenditure data. Finally, on the basis of a representative income survey the profile of the poor will be studied and compared to results based on more traditional poverty indicators.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Fellow: Penne Tess

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Policy strategies to reduce child poverty are nowadays inspired by social investment and generally focused on parental employment. There is substantial overlap between childhood disability and child poverty, but for families with disabled children such employment strategy might be problematic. The risk of being poor for (families of) disabled children is associated with the fact that a) participation in the labour market is difficult for parents as they need to provide care for their children; b) families with disabled children generally have a lower socioeconomic status; and c) they face more medical and other expenses. The main objective of the research proposal is 1) to investigate the interrelationships between these factors; 2) to identify the impact of the current social policy package in Flanders on labour market participation and poverty; and 3) to examine how the prevailing policy paradigm should be recalibrated to achieve better results in terms of child poverty reduction. The research will clarify unresolved questions regarding the role of the work-care balance in families with disabled children in explaining child poverty. The results will allow us a) to formulate new hypotheses on how families with disabled children from different social backgrounds and with different care needs cope with the challenge of care and work; b) to inform policy makers on how to improve existing policy measures; and c) to add to the literature on child poverty and the work-care nexus.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Vandenbroucke Frank
• Co-promoter: Van Lancker Wim
• Fellow: Vinck Julie

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Structural changes to the global economy and shifting political-institutional conditions have increasingly challenged the ability of American and European welfare states to balance the threeway trade-off of adequate incomes for all, high levels of employment, and fiscal restraint. While comparative welfare state literature has historically identified three different approaches (Nordic, Continental European, and Liberal/'Work-Conditional') to balancing this three-way tradeoff, or "social trilemma", this research project challenges the continued legitimacy of these typological distinctions. Given the decline of the social floor, increasing turn toward activation, and institutional endorsement of the 'social investment strategy' among the 28 EU member states, as well as the recent state-level divergence of social and labour market policies among the 50 United States, this study hypothesizes that the conceptual distinctions among American and European approaches to the social trilemma have been blurred. This project uses policy indicators to assess the structure and net value of income protections across the EU and American states from the mid-1990s through today, while also disentangling the economic and political-institutional drivers of changes in states' approaches to the social trilemma. The research package challenges typological distinctions advanced in prior welfare state research and provides a new evidence base for U.S. and EU policymakers moving forward.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van Lancker Wim
• Fellow: Parolin Zachary

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Social benefits targeted at the poor are an important part of modern welfare states. However, recent evidence shows that in many European countries only a fraction of those that are supposed to benefit, take up their social rights. Yet, we have relatively little insight into what drives nontake- up and how policy design can be improved so as to increase take-up. Furthermore, research on this topic, especially in Belgium, is rather scarce. This is unfortunate, because non-take-up undermines the effectiveness of public policies, and a better understanding of non-take-up could make a significant contribution to further insights into economic behaviour of households and their interaction with the welfare state. Therefore, the main objective of this research proposal is to investigate non-take-up of Belgian social assistance schemes and to make progress on three dimensions on which we lack evidence: 1) the size (how big is the problem?), 2) the causes (how can it be explained?) and 3) the solutions (what can be done?). To do so, I will build on the latest theoretical insights, collect and analyse new and existing administrative and survey data, and make use of both microsimulation techniques and field experiments. The results will allow us to a) generate new insights into the economic behaviour of households in general, and the non-take up of social benefits in particular; and b) inform policy makers on how to make existing policy measures more effective for reducing poverty.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Fellow: Janssens Julie

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Wealth taxation has been put forward by scholars and policy makers as a way to reduce income inequalities, which have been on the increase over the past decades in many countries. New household surveys such as the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) developed by the European Central Bank Eurosystem represent a milestone in the ongoing process to better measure individual well-being. However, distributional analysis of income and wealth requires information on disposable income and wealth which are not available, as the new Eurosystem data includes only gross income values. Moreover, in order to simulate the effects of wealth taxes and (budget neutral) reforms to the current direct taxes a microsimulation model is needed. In order to allow for cross-country coverage and comparability, a European wide tax-benefit microsimulation model like EUROMOD is most appropriate. EUROMOD is a static model that provides measures of direct taxes, social insurance contributions, cash benefits as well as market incomes in a comparable way across countries. The aim of this project is to build further on the pilot project and update and extended the EUROMOD model with HFCS data. For a selection of EU countries, the relevant policy sheets to simulate wealth taxes on tailored input database will be included. This will allow expanding the policy domains currently covered in EUROMOD with dimensions like wealth taxation, which recently gained much prominence, in academics as well as the public debate.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This is a project carried out for Flanders Environment Agency. The purpose is to develop and apply a method that should allow the Flemish Water Regulator to: - assess in an objective way the affordability of the water bill in Flanders, in particular for vulnerable households - track the evolution of the affordability of the water bill in the future - carry out social impact simulations of changes to the tariff structure of the water bill

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Vanhille Josefine

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

For the duration of the contract, Tim Goedemé will contribute as an expert member to the work of the ESS ERIC CST Sampling and Weighting Expert Panel. This panel sets out the strategy for sampling and weighting in the European Social Survey (ESS), and is responsible for reviewing sampling strategies in each participating country. More information is available at the ESS website: http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/methodology/ess_methodology/sampling.html.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

As part of the InGRID-2 project, the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy will coordinate Special Interest Group of the EU Reference Budgets Network, organise EUROMOD courses and an Expert Workshop on the cost and accessability of public goods and services. Furthermore, we take part in joint research activities that aim to improve the research infrastructure related to (1) assessing the distributive impact of social and fiscal policies while taking into account assets held by households; (2) measuring the out-of-pocket costs and accessibility of child care and education; (3) studying the coverage and non-take up of out-of-work benefits. In addition, the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy also takes part in the InGRID-2 programme for hosting academic visitors.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the update of the Belgian component in EUROMOD. It includes the following tasks: 1) update of the input database based on EU-SILC 2) building policy systems in EUROMOD 3) validation and inclusion in EUROMOD 4) country report.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Minimum income provisions (MIP) make up our ultimate safety net against extreme financial hardship and poverty. Social safety net provisions in Europe come in many shapes and forms. Their generosity levels differ quite considerably, as do entitlement requirements and behavioral conditions for continued receipt. Yet scholarly research has so far found it very difficult to link such differences, as they exist on paper, to observed poverty outcomes. We know surprisingly little about their actual effectiveness in alleviating poverty. Building on a new analytical approach, this project aims to establish which institutional characteristics, and constellations thereof, matter most for effective poverty relief. To that purpose we will use for the first time a cutting-edge add-on to the EUROMOD microsimulation model that will allow us to link in a far more accurate and sophisticated way defining features of MIP schemes to observed outcomes. Prior to that we will develop a conceptual framework that sets out in a systematic and rigorous way which institutional characteristics of MIP schemes matter for poverty outcomes and how. With this project we hope to advance not only our theoretical and empirical insight of how social safety nets actually matter for effective poverty relief but we also hope to come up with guidelines that can serve to build more performant provisions.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main aim of the Second European Minimum Income Network (EMIN 2) Project, over its two-year implementation will be to strengthen networking, awareness raising and policy debate at EU and national level on the importance of adequate and accessible Minimum Income Schemes in the EU. Under this contract Antwerp University will participate and contribute to the work of the EMIN2 Steering Committee and contribute to link the work of the EU Referenced Budget Network to the work of the EMIN 2 project. More generally, Antwerp University will provide advice to EMIN 2 regarding all its work related to reference budgets.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Storms Berenice M L

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This report looks at the scientic evidence regarding the alleged pros and cons of a basic income in the Netherlands. In addition we perform microsimulation analysis the aim of which is to explore the potential first-order effects of three different budget neutral Basic Income schemes on poverty and inequality in the Netherlands. To do so, we build on the work of Browne and Immervoll who have recently performed a similar exercise for four European countries. We use the European tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD in combination with micro-data from EU-SILC to estimate the potential outcomes of our Basic Income reform. Our analysis shows that the number of winners and losers is almost equal in all scenarios. While winners are mainly found among those individuals that have a strong economic position (e.g. students and employed), losers are mostly concentrated among vulnerable groups on the labour market such as the unemployed. Overall poverty and inequality levels would increase because financial resources are redistributed equally among the population, which is mainly beneficial for richer households. As such, it remains doubtful whether a Basic Income is the most efficient way in addressing poverty and inequality.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Van Lancker Wim
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Context Belgium has become an immigrant society. First generation migrants account for more than 15 percent of the Belgian work force and for over 50 percent of labour force growth. However, nowhere in the EU15 is the employment rate gap between migrants and natives as large. First generation migrants' poverty rates are of the worst in the EU15. Even though we know that the employment rate of people with a migration background is lagging, we know less about the causes behind it, a lacuna that IMMILAB aims to fill. Research on the position of people with a migration background in Belgium is based almost exclusively on cross-sectional data. This project aims to use longitudinal data, spanning up to 18 years, to examine the labour market trajectories of immigrants at the individual, household and firm level. Linking rich administrative datasets and surveys, we aim to get a thorough understanding of the complex dynamics of the socioeconomic trajectories of people with a migration background. With sophisticated longitudinal analyses we hope to break new grounds in how migrants fare. We will also pay particular attention to an underexplored subgroup of migrants: posted workers, of which there are many in Belgium. Individual level At the migrant's individual level we aim to enhance our understanding of the employment trajectories of people with a migration background from an individual perspective. The pathways that first generation migrants follow reflect the interplay of opportunities and barriers during their entire period of residence and first generation migrants' own strategic responses. Availing of a linkage of rich administrative datasets and surveys existing in Belgium, we use large scale longitudinal data to map labour market trajectories of people with a migration background. Our contribution lies in the fact that we will analyse, at a considerable level of detail and within a comparatively extended longitudinal scope (consecutive quarters over a 18 year longitudinal time span), the role of determinants such as origin, migration history, gender, age, household characteristics, on the labour market trajectories of people with a migration background. Household level At the household level we study labour force trajectories in relation to family formation with particular attention to the uptake of work-family policies. We use longitudinal microdata from the Belgian National Register and the Crossroads Bank for Social Security to document trajectories of labour force participation and the uptake of work-family policy among migrant and native parents between 2000 and 2014. In addition, we assess to which degree migrant-native differentials can be explained by pre-birth differentials in employment opportunities and income positions. Besides the availability of unique microdata, Belgium provides an interesting case as the country is a forerunner in the development of work-family policies such as formal childcare and subsidized outsourcing of domestic labour, but also exhibits the largest native-migrant differentials in the labour market. Firm level Finally, our project analyses labour market performance through the lens of the Belgian firms in which immigrants find work in this country. The objective of the ULB/MONS work package is to use longitudinal panel data of Belgian firms and their employees to shed light on various aspects related to the presence of immigrants in Belgian firms that have so far not been studied, namely: 1) the role of product market competition for wage discrimination against immigrants; 2) the incidence and determinants of over-education among immigrants; 3) the effects of educational and skills mismatch on the wages for native and immigrant workers; 4) the consequences of over-education in terms of productivity, wages and profits according to the origin of workers; 5) the policy implications of the collected evidence on all of these issues.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Great Recession threatens the financial sustainability of the public finances of many European countries and combined with the ongoing demographic changes poses their welfare state under stress, affecting deeply the intergenerational relationships. The aim of this project is to provide new cross-country empirical evidence of the impact of the interaction between the economic and demographic changes and the welfare systems on the distribution of the resources, rights and responsibilities between generations. In many European countries welfare provisions addressed to older people are pay as you go financed and fast population ageing boosts redistribution from the young to the old. However, compensatory mechanisms redistributing resources in the opposite direction, i.e. from the old to the young, are often implemented at intra-household level, mainly through inter-vivos transfers and informal care provisions. The analysis takes both redistributive flows into account and covers a variety of European welfare state models, giving a strong base for generalizing the results and deriving useful policy implications. In particular, the analyses relate to 1) an evaluation of the intergenerational redistribution of resources induced by the major pay as you go financed provisions of the European welfare systems addressed to older people; 2) an investigation of informal intra-household mechanisms of intergenerational insurance of income and care risks in European countries in the last ten years; 3) a study of the perceptions and comprehension that individuals have of the aims of the main welfare provisions and of their implications in term of intergenerational relationships.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the MISSION project, a pilot programme will be implemented in the Belgian city of Kortrijk to test an innovative outreach approach for the integrated delivery of local services, aimed at the integration of disadvantaged families in the labour market. Multi-disciplinary case handlers will 1) visit a well-defined target group of disadvantaged families; 2) make an assessment of the specific problems and needs of these families, making use of a newly developed smartphone application; and 3) guide these families in finding the right kind of support for a period of 6 months, instead of expecting these families to muddle through the multitude of local services on their own. In short, the case handler will be the single point of contact for disadvantaged families, bringing a one stop shop in social welfare delivery on their doorstep. The effectiveness of the pilot programme will be tested by means of a randomized controlled trial. The experimental design will enable us to test whether close counseling by case handlers helps in improving take up of local employment services. Moreover, it will be examined whether and how the programme can be transferred to cities with similar problems.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Lancker Wim
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand ESFRI. UA provides ESFRI research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

I will focus on three research questions. First, I will study the measurement of inequality. Building on my earlier work on the measurement of multidimensional inequality, I see important research spill-overs to the measurement of multidimensional poverty and multiperiod social mobility. My second research interest is to investigate the sources of inequality in Belgium and the world. The main idea is to construct counterfactual distributions that result from the change of demographic or policy parameters. The third line of research involves a study of optimal redistributive policies. In particular I am interested in the role of the civil society on the formation of the societal willingness to redistribute and in crystallizing the implicit social preferences in our current taxation system.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Fellow: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In empirical work, it is common practice to study inequality by looking at the dispersion in the income distribution. This approach has the drawback that it remains blind to non-income differences between individuals such as their health, employment, and educational outcomes. A multidimensional framework is needed to take these differences into account when measuring inequality. Yet, in a multidimensional framework different individuals may have different preferences over their multidimensional outcomes. It is an open theoretical question how an inequality measure can be constructed that takes this preference heterogeneity into account. The current project therefore investigates how the existing apparatus to measure inequality can be extended to a multidimensional framework while respecting the preferences of the concerned individuals. Two issues will be addressed in detail. First, by using an axiomatic approach a flexible class of preference-based multidimensional inequality measures with attractive properties will be studied. To do that, a novel multidimensional transfer principle that is compatible with the Pareto principle needs to be proposed. Second, a survey instrument based on insights from the stated-preference approach will be developed to estimate preferences over non-income dimensions. Combining these two answers will lead to an operational preference-sensitive multidimensional inequality measure which can be used to design and evaluate social policies.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this study, potential models for reforming the child benefit system in the Brussels-Capital Region will be examined. Starting point is that child benefits serve to provide cash support for families with children, in particular for families with children living in poverty. Future models need to take into account the particular socio-economic situation and the socio-demographic composition of the Brussels population.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Lancker Wim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research project aims to evaluate the earnings disregard for beneficiaries of invalidity pensions in Belgium. Methodologically, this research draws on model family simulations and uses the standard simulation model MOTYFF (http://www.flemosi.be/easycms/MOTYFF).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha
• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project, funded by Eurostat and coordinated by LISER, we are responsible for a work package in which we document the composition and comparability of the EU-SILC income variables. The information will be brought together in a freely accessible database - MetaSILC 2015. In addition, we take care of the scientific coordination of a Best Practice Workshop on the validity and comparability of the income, health and housing variables in EU-SILC

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Interpersonal well-being comparisons are essential in the design and evaluation of social and redistributive policies. Recent advances in the literature have argued that well-being is a multidimensional notion and that income is not necessarily a good proxy for it. Measuring well-being therefore requires a richer multidimensional toolbox which in addition to income, includes information about non-monetary dimensions such as health, labor market and educational outcomes. The existing multidimensional well-being measures often rely on an arbitrary weighting scheme and do not respect the preferences of the concerned individuals about the relative importance of the dimensions of life. These comparisons have therefore been criticized for being paternalistic. Measuring well-being in a non-paternalistic way requires an instrument to elicit the preferences of the respondents over the dimensions of well-being. At present, no flexible and operational instrument exists that is sufficiently fine-grained to offer reliable estimates of these preferences. The current project proposes an online survey instrument, the so-called well-being monitor, to fill this gap. The central and innovative core of the well-being monitor uses a choice-based method for preference elicitation that is based on a sequence of adaptive bisectional repeated dichotomous choices. In short, respondents will be offered a sequence of dichotomous choices between life situations. The responses put narrow bounds on the indifference curves of the respondents in an entirely non-parametric way. The project funding will permit us to finance a research assistant to implement the survey in QUALTRICS (a state-of-the art online survey tool) and, most importantly, to implement a pilot version of the well-being monitor with a sample of approximately 800 respondents in Flanders. The results of this project are important from a scientific perspective as they will allow to design the first, entirely non-parametric tool to make well-being comparisons. Moreover, the survey instrument in itself has a large potential societal impact by informing policy makers what people in Flanders value in their life. By doing so, the well-being monitor will allow policy makers to prioritize in a more informed way and to target comprehensive social policies better.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the update of the Belgian component in EUROMOD. It includes the following tasks: 1) update of the input database based on EU-SILC 2) building policy systems in EUROMOD 3) validation and inclusion in EUROMOD 4) country report

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project involved the pre-publication of the book 'How much income do households need to make ends meet? Reference budgets for adequate social participation in Flanders and Brussels' (in Dutch). The pre-publication was financed by federal State secretary for poverty reduction, Elke Sleurs. The book builds on the results of recently completed projects on reference budgets, and brings together up to date insights into the minimum resources required for adequate social participation in Belgium.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Storms Berenice M L

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Modern welfare economics starts from the premise that the evaluation of an individual's well-being should respect her own preferences on what makes a good life. Estimating these preferences is an important challenge for any applied welfare evaluation and policy design, in particular when nonmarket goods are involved. A novel method to estimate preferences for non-market goods relies on self-reported happiness data. This happiness-based method has clear advantages: it is easy to implement and robust to strategic answers. Yet, individuals may interpret and use the response scale of the happiness question differently. Hence, the self-reported happiness scores cannot be compared. The current project investigates how destructive this finding is. Its main idea is to compare happiness scores given to hypothetical situations (vignettes) in two carefully designed internet surveys.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand ESFRI. UA provides ESFRI research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main objective of the TAKE-project is to investigate non-take up (NTU) across Belgian public policy provisions. TAKE aims to make progress on three dimensions: how big is the problem, how can it be explained, and how should policy be (re)designed in order to maximize take-up? In addition, the project aims at examining the consequences of NTU in terms of budgetary impact and equity and at identifying the possible best practices in monitoring NTU by public administrations. For doing so, TAKE will adopt a multi-benefit approach. The focus of attention is on households with low incomes. TAKE will investigate how NTU in a variety of public goods and services affects their living standard, and how NTU can be reduced across public provisions. This project aims to jointly assess a wide variety of public provisions for citizens and companies: cash social assistance (both for the elderly and those at active age), cost compensatory benefits targeted at low income households (e.g. the 'Beneficiary of Increased Reimbursement'(BIR) in health insurance, reduced tariffs for utilities and mobility), social services (e.g. debt counselling, labour market counselling) and employer wage subsidies targeted at the low-skilled. Methodologically, the TAKE project makes use of a range of data sources and innovative research methods. First, we will collect new survey data which allow for a proper investigation into NTU in Belgium. We will carry out a survey, which is expressly tailored to the needs of making an integrated in-depth study of the size, characteristics, causes and consequences of NTU of policy measures targeted at vulnerable groups. A sample will be drawn from administrative data available to the Crossroads Bank on Social Security (CBSS). Second, for identifying NTU, one also needs a model which replicates the eligibility tests on the basis of the variables in the survey. The existing static tax-benefit microsimulation model MEFISTO will be extended and refined for doing so. MEFISTO has been developed in the framework of the IWT-SBO project 'FLEMOSI: a tool for ex ante evaluation of socio-economic policies in Flanders' (2010-2013) (see http://www.flemosi.be/easycms/MEFISTO). Third, TAKE will make use of a field experiment to test the effect of various triggers and encouragements on the uptake of the "Beneficiary of Increased Reimbursement" (BIR) statute within health insurance. Fourth, in order to study the institutional context, we will develop TAKE_ISSOC (working title), i.e. a structured and searchable database which contains the details of eligibility tests of the social benefits covered by the project and how they are implemented in practice. In addition, TAKE_ISSOC will cover measures that public administrations currently take to reduce NTU, and current monitoring practices and their outcomes with regard to NTU. The TAKE project will gather similar information on Sweden and the United Kingdom in order to identify and assess good practices. Fifth, TAKE will exploit existing administrative data collected by public agencies to investigate NTU of employment subsidies targeted at the low-skilled and other vulnerable groups in the period 2004-2013. Longitudinal administrative data from the National Social Security Office (NSSO) and from the National Employment Office (NEO) will be used for doing so. Six, to better understand the reasons for NTU of employment subsidies, the existing survey on administrative charges will be used. This survey measures the costs of administrative charges related to employment legislation incurred by employers in Belgium. TAKE will be able to gather valuable information on non-take up of wage subsidies by adding specific questions to this survey.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Vergauwen Jorik

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The IPSWICH project seeks to understand how institutional and policy factors, in relation to underlying labour market and household dynamics, generate in-work poverty in Belgium. It takes into account the relation between in-work and jobless poverty, and examines which policy reforms can contribute to reduce present poverty and prevent further increases. Key factors in the analyses are wages, working hours and contracts, household work intensity, social protection, productivity, discrimination, and wage bargaining power.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The IPSWICH project seeks to understand how institutional and policy factors, in relation to underlying labour market and household dynamics, generate in-work poverty in Belgium. It takes into account the relation between in-work and jobless poverty, and examines which policy reforms can contribute to reduce present poverty and prevent further increases. Key factors in the analyses are wages, working hours and contracts, household work intensity, social protection, productivity, discrimination, and wage bargaining power.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand ESFRI. UA provides ESFRI research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Matthew effect is the moniker given by the great sociologist Robert K. Merton to the phenomenon that the rich tend to get richer while the poor tend to stay poor. Although well-known in public discourse, the Matthew effect has now been out of fashion in the corpus of social policy theory for over two decades. In my research, I have argued and empirically demonstrated that the Matthew effect still is a relevant analytical device to evaluate the outcomes of social policy. How to improve poverty reduction by remedying the Matthew effect, will be subject of my research agenda in the years to come.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Lancker Wim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

With this project we aim to explore how the affordability of water consumption by household actors can be appropriately measured. In addition we will assess possibilities of developing an 'affordability indicator' for Flanders. Finally, we will explore the literature regarding affordability indicators of water consumption by non-household actors.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Publicly provided or subsidised goods and services account for about half of social expenditures in European welfare states. Obviously, this has an important impact upon the living standard of households. Nevertheless, current methods trying to include the value of services into measures of cash incomes largely fail to take into account household needs associated with these services. This project seeks to contribute to the measurement of poverty in welfare states by developing a new way to examine the impact of public services on poverty. The proposal distinguishes four research phases. First, patterns in the cost and accessibility of public services in European welfare states will be studied. Second, on the basis of a new dataset of cross-country comparable reference budgets the project aims to estimate the effect of services and cost-compensations on the budget that specific family types need at the minimum for adequate social participation. For six European countries new poverty thresholds will be estimated which take account of the needs of households and the cost for accessing essential services. Third, the estimated poverty thresholds will be extrapolated to the population by developing a new approach which combines information from reference budgets and household expenditure data. Finally, on the basis of a representative income survey the profile of the poor will be studied and compared to results based on more traditional poverty indicators.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Fellow: Penne Tess

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Policy strategies to reduce child poverty are nowadays inspired by social investment and generally focused on parental employment. There is substantial overlap between childhood disability and child poverty, but for families with disabled children such employment strategy might be problematic. The risk of being poor for (families of) disabled children is associated with the fact that a) participation in the labour market is difficult for parents as they need to provide care for their children; b) families with disabled children generally have a lower socioeconomic status; and c) they face more medical and other expenses. The main objective of the research proposal is 1) to investigate the interrelationships between these factors; 2) to identify the impact of the current social policy package in Flanders on labour market participation and poverty; and 3) to examine how the prevailing policy paradigm should be recalibrated to achieve better results in terms of child poverty reduction. The research will clarify unresolved questions regarding the role of the work-care balance in families with disabled children in explaining child poverty. The results will allow us a) to formulate new hypotheses on how families with disabled children from different social backgrounds and with different care needs cope with the challenge of care and work; b) to inform policy makers on how to improve existing policy measures; and c) to add to the literature on child poverty and the work-care nexus.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van Lancker Wim
• Fellow: Vinck Julie

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Wealth taxation has been put forward by scholars and policy makers as a way to reduce income inequalities, which have been on the increase over the past decades in many countries. New household surveys such as the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) developed by the European Central Bank Eurosystem represent a milestone in the ongoing process to better measure individual well-being. However, distributional analysis of income and wealth requires information on disposable income and wealth which are not available, as the new Eurosystem data includes only gross income values. Moreover, in order to simulate the effects of wealth taxes and (budget neutral) reforms to the current direct taxes a microsimulation model is needed. In order to allow for cross-country coverage and comparability, a European wide tax-benefit microsimulation model like EUROMOD is most appropriate. EUROMOD is a static model that provides measures of direct taxes, social insurance contributions, cash benefits as well as market incomes in a comparable way across countries. The aim of this project is to build an extended version of the EUROMOD model which includes, for a selection of EU countries, the relevant policy sheets to simulate wealth taxes on tailored input database. This will allow expanding the policy domains currently covered in EUROMOD with dimensions like wealth taxation, which recently gained much prominence, in academics as well as the public debate.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research project aims to evaluate the earnings disregard for social assistance recipients in Belgium and to formulate policy recommendations. This research draws on quantitative data from the Federal Public Service for Social Integratoin, in-depth interviews with social workers and previous research.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the client. UA provides the client research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Lancker Wim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main purpose of this KP-BOF project is to initatiate new empirical research on the link between child poverty and childhood disability. Drawing on administrative data which will be disclosed for the first time, the project aims to conduct a proper overview of the poverty risk of children with disabilities in Belgium and to develop new hypotheses on the impact of social policy on the poverty risk of these children.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Lancker Wim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a research contract awarded by the University of Antwerp. The supervisor provides the Antwerp University research mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions stipulated by the university.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Both at the Belgian and European level, the transition to a low-carbon society is considered an important policy concern. In this project, we start from the framework of sustainable development for contributing to the debate about how the transition to a low-carbon society can be achieved, while reconciling environmental and social goals. As has been documented for other countries, standard policy instruments often create trade-offs between the different goals of sustainable development. Addressing these trade-offs – as well as their translation into inequalities between socio-economic groups – requires a thorough understanding of the link between incomes, consumption and greenhouse gas emissions at the household level. Therefore, in this project we explore the interdependencies and inequalities operating at the micro-level and investigate how policy can reconcile social and environmental goals in the transition towards a low-carbon society.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The objective of the research project is 1) to analyse, simulate and evaluate proposals for reforming the Flemish child benefit system; and 2) to investigate the do's and don'ts of implementing an income test in child benefit systems.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Lancker Wim
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The question of how social policy should be designed in order to have the biggest impact on poverty, is often answered with the truism that 'policies designed for the poor, are poor policies'. Indeed, it was generally found that universally designed social policies are better able to reduce poverty than policies targeted to the poor; a phenomenon termed the 'paradox of redistribution'. Behind this paradox lies the observation that universal welfare states tend to be bigger welfare states; they spend more on social policy. In contrast, recent empirical studies find that targeting tends to be associated with higher instead of lower levels of poverty reduction, in particular when accompanied by high levels of social spending. The current state of the literature does not allow to explain the changed relationship between targeting and poverty reduction. Therefore, the main aim of this research proposal is to unravel the link between poverty reduction and targeting across and within developed economies. I will empirically address two hypotheses that might shed light on the mechanisms of how social policy impacts on poverty, and seek to understand the role played by the design of social policy. I will address several shortcomings of previous research and test the generalizability of the results using quantitative as well as a qualitative research methods.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Van Lancker Wim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project seeks to expand our knowledge on these first round crisis measures, and to assess their possible impact on subsequent policy measures and welfare state change. The project takes advantage of the research opportunity offered by the 2008 crisis.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Fellow: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand VLK. UA provides VLK research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Promoter: Goedemé Tim
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Lefevere Eva
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The current proposal aims at implementing a pilot survey with students in Belgium, Bangladesh and Colombia so that information can be collected on the prefered weights of the dimensions of the good life by means of a "discrete choice experiment". This novel method allows to develop multidimensional measures of well-being that take account of the opinions of the concerned individuals and which are consequently non-paternalistic.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research project has a substantive and a methodological goal. With regard to the substantive goal, the investigation of the implementation of activation practices has remained largely one-sided. We aim to explore interactions between three levels of characteristics: client, social worker and agency. The main research question is, 'How important is the discretionary freedom of social assistance agencies and social workers in deciding on a claimant's duty to work?'

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Cuypers Daniël
• Co-promoter: Goos Peter
• Co-promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Federal Public Service. UA provides the Federal Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this project was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to develop a tool for the ex ante assessment of the financial impact in a particular situation of a transition from benefit dependency to a work situation. Secondly, the tool was used to update our understanding of inactivity traps for disabled people in Flanders.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha
• Co-promoter: Bogaerts Kristel
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project aims to make relevant contributions at broadly two (intersecting) levels. On the one hand the network aims to contribute to a better informed public debate and policy making process on current policy issues, including the fight against poverty and social inclusion, efficient and equitable taxation, sustainable pensions and health care, labour market access and employability. On the other hand the network aims to make significant scientific contributions at an international level on the joint distribution of income and wealth, especially among the poor and the elderly, the integration of assets and wealth in the measurement of poverty and social exclusion, the incorporation of as sets and wealth in the design of social policy and the optimal taxation of wealth.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The objective of this project is precisely to set up a data set of a representative sample of Belgian households. The data set will be constructed in such a way that the three techniques of estimating preferences will be applied and compared, with the objective of finding the way to mix them to reach the best possible estimates. No such data set exists, neither for Belgium no for any other country. Once preferences are estimated, measures of individual well-being will be obtained and they will then be used for the analysis of the relative importance of the multiple dimensions of poverty, the gender component of poverty and inequality and the causes and remedies of socioeconomic inequalities in health.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Federal Public Service. UA provides the Federal Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main objective of the project is to provide The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) with a modelling tooI, research results and analysis on the potential effects of housing taxation in the EU using microlevel (i.e. household) data. In particular, this tooI will be used to analyse the potential impact of housing tax reforms on household disposable income and income inequalities in selected EU countries. The tooI will also be used to analyse the effect of housing taks reforms when combined with other reforms affecting household disposable income.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand KBS . UA provides KBS research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand NBB . UA provides NBB research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other FOD Sociale Zekerheid. UA provides FOD Sociale Zekerheid research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the updating of the Belgian country component for EUROMOD. It involves the following tasks: 1) Updating the input database based on the EU-SILC 2) Building policy systems into EUROMOD 3) Validation and incorporation into EUROMOD 4) Country report

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Salanauskaite Lina

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Referring to the increasingly challenging EU2020-ambition of Inclusive Growth, the objectives of the InGRID project are to integrate and to innovate existing, but distributed European social sciences research infrastructures on 'poverty and living conditions' and 'working conditions and vulnerability' by improving the transnational data access, organising mutual knowledge exchange and improving methods and tools for comparative research.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

A policy maker with scarce resources may want to target the worst-off. In this project, we study the identification of the worst-off (i) when taking a multidimensional perspective to well-being and (ii) while respecting the heterogeneity in opinions on the importance of the dimensions of well-being.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project will address the issue of how te achieve a better mariage between employment growth and poverty reduction, one of the core issues of the Europe 2020 agenda. The particular focus will be on policies that can help to ensure that transitions from non-work to work, or for that matter from low work intensity to high work intensity also ensure a live free from poverty.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Flemish Public Service. UA provides the Flemish Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this research project we want to analyse the labour market performance of second-generation migrants using a combination of survey and administrative data. We also want to identify the determinants of these outcomes in Belgium, which will also provide helpful insights for policy makers in this domain.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Corluy Vincent
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project seeks to expand our knowledge on these first round crisis measures, and to assess their possible impact on subsequent policy measures and welfare state change. The project takes advantage of the research opportunity offered by the 2008 crisis.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Fellow: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the updating of the Belgian country component for EUROMOD. It involves the following tasks: 1) Updating the input database based on the EU-SILC 2) Building policy systems into EUROMOD 3) Validation and incorporation into EUROMOD 4) Country report

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research proposal takes as its starting points: (a) the long standstill in poverty reduction, especially for people of working age, (b) the complementarity between employment, economic growth and social inclusion that is focal in the EU 2020 strategy, and, (c) the emergence of socially innovative policies and actions in the margins of the European welfare states. It aims at the evaluation of the Lisbon decade in terms of policies and actions against poverty at European, national and sub-national level and at improving the understanding of the interrelationships between employment, social protection and social inclusion and between institutionalised macro level social policies and innovative local action.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Federal Public Service. UA provides the Federal Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Flemish Public Service. UA provides the Flemish Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Hercules Foundation. UA provides the Hercules Foundation research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Decancq Koen
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal service agreement between UA and on the other hand EC. UA provides EC research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

I will focus on three research questions. First, I will study the measurement of inequality. Building on my earlier work on the measurement of multidimensional inequality, I see important research spill-overs to the measurement of multidimensional poverty and multiperiod social mobility. My second research interest is to investigate the sources of inequality in Belgium and the world. The main idea is to construct counterfactual distributions that result from the change of demographic or policy parameters. The third line of research involves a study of optimal redistributive policies. In particular I am interested in the role of the civil society on the formation of the societal willingness to redistribute and in crystallizing the implicit social preferences in our current taxation system.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Decancq Koen
• Fellow: Decancq Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This doctoral research aims to gain insight in the optimal policy mix of conditional measures and enabling policies (directed towards social assistance recipients) in order to promote the transition of social assistance to employment, while ensuring a decent level of protection. By doing so, it will contribute to answering the question of why some countries succeed in combining high minimum income protection levels with high levels of outflow from social assistance dependency and why Belgium is not among them. In other words, the central aim is to find out the role of conditionality in bringing social assistance recipients to work and enabling the social assistance scheme to provide adequate benefits.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Fellow: Marchal Sarah

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Flemish Public Service. UA provides the Flemish Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The primary aim of this project is to bring together all the knowledge in order to develop a "handbook" with a concrete set of recommendations for data providers and data users. The development fo a "handbook", the organisation of a workshop and possibly the production of documented and user-friendly computer codes for standard errors estimation will ensure that our recommendations will be practicable and widely disseminated among users.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand KBS. UA provides KBS research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Cuypers Daniël

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The proposed research project aims to assess these adjustments in three welfare states (Belgium/Flanders, Sweden and the Netherlands) in a European comparative perspective, with the work-family conflict as a case in point. Since inequality is on the rise again in Europe, the overarching research question concerns the role of NSR policies in the redistributive capacity of welfare states.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Ghysels Joris

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This study assesses whether Belgium's decentralised activation policy in social assistance is effective in guiding social assistance beneficiaries towards sustainable employment. Recently, many states have rescaled their social assistance schemes due to activation. This has given rise to a lively international debate on the optimal distribution of competences between government levels. We aim to contribute substantially to, firstly, the mainly economic and political literature on social federalism, and secondly, the social policy literature on the effectiveness of social activation policies.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Neels Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Organisation and coordination of a Network on the European Co-ordination of social security schemes within the European Union (Project Nos. VC/2010/0436 - Lot 1: Expertise in Social Security Coordination and VC/2010/1047 - Lot 2: Information and training)

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this project is to gain insight in the mechanisms underlying socio-economic differences in health seeking behavior, with a focus on vaccination behavior. Throughout the work, I integrate theories from different social sciences (sociology, economics, (social) psychology, and administrative sciences). I aim to contribute to the scientific knowledge on both vaccination behavior in general (identifying factors explaining this behavior can offer keys to the understanding of differences in the behavior) and on socio-economic differences in this behavior (where possible I want to directly observe these differences and connect them to underlying mechanisms).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Van Damme Pierre
• Fellow: Lefevere Eva

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Federal Public Service. UA provides the Federal Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Putting the social investment state to the test. Assessing the impact of Dutch and Belgian policy adjustments on poverty and social inequality. Facing permanent austerity, several European welfare states 'reinvented' themselves as 'social investment states' (Giddens, 1998): shifting in focus from providing 'passive' income protection towards increasing labour market participation and investing in people's skills. This proposal focuses on the relationship between the social investment state and poverty/social inequality. Although several policy documents assume a natural symbiosis between labour market participation and poverty reduction, a few studies suggest that this relationship is far more ambiguous. To answer this question, the effects of Dutch and Belgian social policies are investigated. The Netherlands and Belgium are 'most similar cases': both countries are very similar (small open transit economies), except for their broad policy reorientations. In the Netherlands there was an increased focus on active labour market policies, while Belgian policy adjustments were small and incremental. This project is divided into three distinct phases. First of all, the evolution of poverty and income inequality will be described for a long period of time. Secondly, policy and resource indicators will be used and collected in order to provide an overview of major social policy adjustments. Finally, these indicators will be used to estimate the redistributive effects of social policy, with special focus for so-called 'risk households'.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Fellow: Pintelon Olivier

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand Stichting Instituut Gak. UA provides Stichting Instituut Gakresearch results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Organization of the working group 'Work' and develop a discussion draft of the major challenges within the theme 'Work'.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Flemish Public Service. UA provides the Flemish Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project will aim at analysing the evolution of minimum income protection in the EU over the last decade, as well as the cross-country variation observed based on most recent data.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Mussche Ninke
• Co-promoter: Corluy Vincent
• Co-promoter: De Maesschalck Veerle
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Strategic objective: A major improvement in the understanding of changing inequalities and their impacts in the various countries of the European Union in comparison to other developed countries, including a longer-term perspective and with due attention paid to the impact on society as a whole

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The research question has two main parts: 1) What are the determinants of the gap between immigrants and natives in terms of their labour market position and mobility chances? 2) To what extent can immigration contribute to the financial sustainability of social security in general and for Belgium in particular, given the labour market position and trajectories of immigrants?

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the FLEMOSI ("FLEmish MOdels of SImulation") five international partners collaborate to build advanced microsimulation models. We start from the European model EUROMOD and extend this with specific Flemish competences. These models are used to analyse the effects of policy changes before they are put into practice.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van Mechelen Natascha

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project develops a projection tool for the 'true demand' for childcare services in the region of Flanders. In a first stage the determinants of the demand for childcare services (positive selection and number of hours) are selected through regression analysis (bivariate probit). In a second stage the results are applied to all Flemish municipalities to predict the current demand for formal childcare services and determine the size of the gap between effective supply and demand.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Ghysels Joris

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Federal Public Service. UA provides the Federal Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The key objective of the project is to improve and extend EUROMOD's usefulness as a tool for policy monitoring. This will involve - updating EUROMOD to cover recent policy systems; - upgrading EUROMOD to operate using EU-SILC data as the input database; and - developing methods and precesses that facilitate the efficient updating of EUROMOD in the future.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The research project aims to explore how work incapacity fits into early retirement schemes in Flanders, and to compare the Flemish situation with that in other welfare state regimes. It intends to set out in search of substitution effects between different early exit mechanisms and to find explanations for early retirement patterns in Flanders. Factors such as health, demographic evolutions and employer characteristics shall be taken into consideration.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project contributes to the activities of the Indicator's Sub-Group (ISG) of the European Commission's DG Employment and Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. The aim is to develop a vade-mecum reflecting the work on indicators in the context of the ISG, both with regard to methodology as the political dimension. The final report will consist of first, a number of horizontal chapters concerning the development and use of social indicators within the context of the European Union's Open Method for Coordination on Social Protection and Social Inclusion; second, fact sheets for every indicator already agreed or under discussion and third; a web application comprising these fact sheets.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project, the architecture and social adequacy of the welfare regimes in the Eastern EU member states is compared. In order to do so, the project focuses on the evolution of the elderly's income situation. Using various quantitative techniques the effect of cross-temporary and cross-sectional differences in social policy on the intergenerational and intra-generational distribution of income is estimated. More specifically the importance of differences in income packages (public, private, occupational pensions, compensations in health-care and housing, income from work) for the adequacy of incomes are scrutinized. In doing so, the project contributes to a better understanding of the impact of social policy on social outcomes and to the literature on the evolution of welfare regimes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this project is to gain insight in the mechanisms underlying socio-economic differences in health seeking behavior, with a focus on vaccination behavior. Throughout the work, I integrate theories from different social sciences (sociology, economics, (social) psychology, and administrative sciences). I aim to contribute to the scientific knowledge on both vaccination behavior in general (identifying factors explaining this behavior can offer keys to the understanding of differences in the behavior) and on socio-economic differences in this behavior (where possible I want to directly observe these differences and connect them to underlying mechanisms).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Van Damme Pierre
• Fellow: Lefevere Eva

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project provides a welfare evaluation of various policy alternatives regarding the provision of childcare. To do so, it enhances the existing 'collective household model' with children as effective actors in the decision making process. Moreover, it compares policy measures regarding childcare services in Flanders, Finland, Germany and the UK, focussing on the distributional outcomes (between households and the intrahousehold allocation).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Ghysels Joris

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Bogaerts Kristel
• Co-promoter: De Graeve Diana

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a research contract awarded by the University of Antwerp. The supervisor provides the Antwerp University research mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions stipulated by the university.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Breda Jef

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Aim of the preparatory phase is to bring the SHARE prototype to the level of financial, legal, governance and technical maturity required to fill important knowledge gaps in individual and population ageing. It involves all stakeholders necessary for the major upgrade, among them research institutes and universities; national science ministries and foundations; two Directorates General of the European Commission; and the US, National Institute on Aging. Most important tangible outcome of this negotiation process will be a memorandum of understanding as the foundation for a sustainable cooperation of the stakeholders.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research consists of two central parts. In the first part, I look for possible characteristics of a European social model. Does there exist a set of common features, and if so, how do they relate with the differences? In order to answer that question, a comparison is made between the European social market economies with social market economies elsewhere, with respect to their structure, functioning, and outcomes (in terms of effectiveness). This analysis will be based on socio-economic data at both the micro- and macro-level (LIS, ECHP (EU-SILC), ESSPROS and OECD data), complemented with a meta-study of the vast relevant literature. The empirical data will be analysed from a multidisciplinary focus in line with the social policy analysis tradition: the coherence and diversity of social arrangements (input) will be related with policymaking (throughput) and with the outcomes of social policies in terms of social effectiveness (output). The research question in the second part of this study is whether the European social model needs to be strengthened, and if so, how that should be established. This analysis will first look at the existing central social instruments, such as the Structural Funds. What are the purpose, size and effectiveness of the current flow of funds? Secondly, the minimum income schemes in the Member States are scrutinized, starting, in particular, from the question what options Europe has at its disposal, both in principle as in political and economic reality, to improve these national minimum income schemes. Finally, using modelling techniques, the impact of different future scenarios are compared. The multidisciplinary framework from the first part will also guide the analysis in the second part.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Rottiers Stijn

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Fellow: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the framework of two AGORA-projects (AG/01/086 "Microsimulation model Social Security" and AG/01/116 "Valorisation of the microsimulation of Social Protection") an arithmetic model (MIMOSIS) has been developed which allows to calculate distribution and budgetary effects of reforms in social security on the basis of administrative data. MIMOSIS has been integrated in the working of the FOD Social Security and is used for policy support and preprations. In this project we examine the extent to which MIMOSIS can be used for international comparative simulations. The 'European Tax/benefit Model' (EUROMOD) serves as a point of reference.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Bogaerts Kristel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The strategic goal of this project is to develop a coherent framework for the development of social cohesion indicators in Flanders. While in the past decade, enormous amounts of statistical material have been assembled in Flanders, never before these various data sets (crime, fear of crime, use of social security, income, social participation, local government expenditures) have been brought together in one coherent data collection, that can be used by a wide array of social actors. With this project, we will assemble such a data set, by bringing together some of the best research teams in Flanders, each of them with a long track record in their field (resp., criminology, social security, participation and local government expenditure). In a second phase of this project, additional data will be collected by conducting a representative survey of the Flemish population, with an oversampling of theoretically relevant communities (the selection of these communities will be based on the results of the first data combination phase).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

One of the most remarkable trends in recent decades has been the sharp increase in female labour supply and the related shift from a breadwinner towards a dual-earner society (Cantillon, 1991). On the other hand, the proliferation of dual earnership has not been universal: large numbers of low-skilled women remain inactivity or end up in unemployment. This conclusion has important socio-economic implications: not only do single-earner families face a high poverty risk, but this effect is further reinforced by the fact that low-skilled women tend to live together with low-skilled partners whose earnings potential is also low. Moreover, the employment of low-skilled women is a key issue in the European Employment Strategy, which stresses the importance of a rise in employment levels in order to sustain social security in a greying society. The proposed research will investigate why the so-called Belgian combination model has not worked for low-skilled women. Various hypotheses shall be tested. On the one hand, it seems reasonable to assume that financial constraints pose a greater problem for low-skilled women with low earnings potential. On the other, it is possible that poorly educated women have developed different preferences vis-à-vis the combination of work and care. A third hypothesis is that low-skilled females face a heavier care burden, not only numerically, but also through the accumulation of problems at household level: low income, household instability (e.g. lone mothers tend to be low skilled), ethnic minority background, presence of 'vulnerable' children with a variety of problems such as learning difficulties, behavioural and emotional problems, mental and physical disabilities.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Ghysels Joris

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project, the architecture and social adequacy of the welfare regimes in the Eastern EU member states is compared. In order to do so, the project focuses on the evolution of the elderly's income situation. Using various quantitative techniques the effect of cross-temporary and cross-sectional differences in social policy on the intergenerational and intra-generational distribution of income is estimated. More specifically the importance of differences in income packages (public, private, occupational pensions, compensations in health-care and housing, income from work) for the adequacy of incomes are scrutinized. In doing so, the project contributes to a better understanding of the impact of social policy on social outcomes and to the literature on the evolution of welfare regimes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The OECD publishes on a regular basis international comparisons of poverty and income distribution in the OECD countries. We computed the necessary figures for Belgium on the basis of ECHP (1995 and 2000) and EU-SILC (2005).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The central research question is: to what extent do migrants contribute to the financial sustainability of the social security system and to the economic capacity of the welfare state in general, with a focus on Belgium? To what extent can migration offer a solution to the economic and fiscal challenges produced by an ageing society? We tackle this issue using intergenerational calculations, by drawing up a socio-economic profile of migrants and by estimating their welfare dependency and contribution to the social security system.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project consists of the finalisation of a report on the impact of government services on income distribution, building on an existing draft and in co-ordination with other OECD staff. This will require implementing alternative methods for attributing the costs of these services to individuals with different characteristics, on micro-records from the European Community Household Panel and possibly on other sources for non-European countries.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Minimum benefits in the Belgian Social Security System are automatically adapted to price evolution following the so called "health-index". In the beginning of 2004, the Belgian government decided to adapt minimum benefits not only to price evolution but also to welfare evolution from 2007 on. This research project investigated to what extent the subsistence level in our neighboring countries follow welfare evolution, and which mechanism are used to achieve this. Which lessons can be drawn from policies in other countries in order to achieve welfare correction for minimum benefits? Which policies are possible, and what are their pros and contras. The research is divided in three parts. We start with an update of the evolution of the Belgian minimal protection level. We go in-depth to which extent Belgian policies achieve minimal benefit levels that follow the evolution of purchasing power and welfare. Then we compare this evolution with the evolution in our neighboring countries. Finally, we focus on recent policies of these countries regarding social benefits and especially the policies to install benefit level adaptations for the general welfare.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In a diverse continent like Europe, much can be learned from cross-national research using surveys among households and individuals. Often, however, such comparisons suffer from differences across countries and socio-economic groups in the way people answer survey questions, particularly self-evaluations of, e.g., health or quality of work. This proposal aims at solving this problem by developing widely applicable tools for comparative survey research among European citizens, so-called ancoring vignettes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This programme of activity will improve the comparability, scope and applicability of tools, methods and data for the measurement of income and the analysis of the effects of policies on inequality, poverty and social inclusion. It includes three linked projects on: (a) The distributional effects of non-cash incomes and the implementation of a more comprehensive income definition, (b) The implications of (and methods to account for) errors in targeting social benefits, tax evasion and measurement error in income data, (c) Incorporation of the effects of indirect taxes, along with direct taxes and social benefits, in redistribution analysis. All three projects are designed to improve the degree of comparability of measurement and analysis across countries. Each project will develop methodologies within a cross-national perspective and demonstrate their applicability to a wide range of research questions in diverse scientific fields. The resulting data and method enhancements will be made generally accessible and re-useable by implementing them within EUROMOD the EU tax-benefit model, an existing research infrastructure used for policy analysis and evaluation.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

On the 1 st of September 2003, a new law on basic bank services* came into force in Belgium -unprecedented in Europe. This law obliges all banking institutions to offer a basic bank service for a maximum annual fee of 12 Euros, and thus aims to effectively eradicate bank exclusion, and more broadly socio-economic exclusion. But to what extent does the introduction of a legal 'right to a bank account' actually succeed in democratising access and usage of a bank account, and fight financial exclusion and poverty? How can we explain the establishment of this law, and interpret its meaning within the area of tension between on the one hand, increasing liberalization (deregulation) and sharp competition in the banking sector, and on the other, the need for quality and affordable basic service provision for all? Which additional policy measures -identified and tested via carefully designed experiments- are most urgent to effectively realize the potential impacts of the law on basic bank services? Which concrete suggestions does this unique case generate for efforts elsewhere (in particular, the EU and the US) to provide the poor with financial services? And more generally, what are the implications of our research-strategy and -results for the further design and implementation of well thought-out social policy in Belgium as well as abroad?To effectively evaluate the broader impacts of a basic bank service, and more generally, the usage of financial products, special efforts are needed in developing innovative data. Existing databases (namely, the Socio-Economic Panel and the Panel Study of Belgian Households) are inadequate to enhance our understanding of, amongst other things, how individuals conceptualise their decisions over new financial products, to what extent individuals actually make use of existing services, and whether the use of these services really impacts individual and household welfare. Moreover, the poor or low-income households, the central target group of our project, are often underrepresented (due to attrition and selection biases) in those typical databases (De Keulenaar, 2002; Adriaansen, 2003). Hence, the approach we wish to promote and explore combines randomised experiments with survey data of random samples. Our project strives not only to improve our understanding of social situations related to poverty, but also to help shape better policies to fight against poverty. For instance, the unravelling of how certain population segments in our society analyse and undertake every day consumption decisions should allow policymakers and professionals to more effectively reach and assist these groups. Also, feedback from a randomised encouragement experiment should allow development planners, among other things, to perfect the product (basic bank service) and to develop a targeted, effective marketing or promotion strategy for launching it to a wider audience.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe: Integrating Activities to Access the Time Dimension and to Enlarge the Cross-national Dimension. (SHARE-I3)

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Gelieve aan te vullen a.u.b.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Breda Jef

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Rottiers Stijn

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Gelieve aan te vullen a.u.b.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Goedemé Tim

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Equalsoc is a network of excellence funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme. The network consists of 13 European research centres which the Commission deems to have attained exceptional level of academic expertise in the field of social inequality and cohesion. The network intends to encourage comparative research in such areas as employment and the labour market, income distribution and mobility, education and social mobility, the family and social networks, cultural differentiation and social capital.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve
• Co-promoter: Ghysels Joris
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The division of labour of Flemish newly formed households is the research topic of this project. It looks at potential differences in the time allocation of the partners in these households, as compared to other households. Some central questions are: Does labour force participation tend to be higher? Does co-parenting lead to a more equitable gender-balance and more leisure? Is there a higher share of third parties (both formal and informal) when it comes to childcare?

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Ghysels Joris

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The most important societal issues with which Flanders and Europe will be confronted in coming decades is the twofold ageing of the population. The three principal policy issues that arise in this context are: i) the manner in which the burden of population ageing should/can be distributed between and within generations; ii) the development of high-quality and affordable care support for all; iii) and the enhancement of participation by the elderly in economic, social, political and cultural life in order that the capital of experience, knowledge and skills that the elderly represent could be utilised maximally. As far as the Flemish policy level is concerned, all aspects of these problematic areas are relevant: policy on formal and informal care for the elderly, including the Flemish care insurance scheme, employment policy, tax policy, housing policy, sociocultural and educational policy and, as a context for all policy domains, the structure of income and expenditure distribution and particularly the position occupied by the weaker groups (who may be targets of specific provisions). Some important research has already been conducted into the socio-economic aspects of population ageing in Flanders, but often this research is insufficiently prospective and informative for policy purposes. Moreover, usually a European angle is lacking, even though Flemish policy can obviously draw lessons from developments in other European countries. We therefore propose to construct an interdisciplinary knowledge platform with a view to: -bringing together available expertise in Flanders in the field of policy-oriented research into the issue of population ageing; -collecting high-quality data for Flanders that allow comparison with other regions and countries in Europe; -developing research instruments and methods to analyse these data in dynamic perspective and to test policy alternatives for their economic and social efficiency.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research project deals with the question of what is the most optimal level at which to organise social redistribution through social security and taxation, in Belgium, in other federal States and in Europe. This issue will be approached empirically, by studying the functioning, the determinants and the outcomes (in terms of social adequacy) of social redistribution between territorial entities. From a distributional perspective, we shall try to determine the optimum level at which to organise income redistribution and explore possibilities for allowing separate redistributive entities to work together.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve
• Co-promoter: Marx Ive
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this pilot-action-research project 50 families on low income will be followed during half a year, with the aim of obtaining extensive and thorough data on their resources and coping strategies. In this way, quantitatively oriented research on large samples will be linked to small-scale qualitative studies of low-income families. In addition, the true extent of non-take-up of social benefits will be assessed.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The modern labour market demands a great amount of flexibility. A continuous development of knowledge and competences is required. The stimulation of the participation of adults in higher education is an important policy field. This VIONA-research aims to extend the knowledge on adults in higher education by an explorative study focused on Flanders. Based on administrative records on higher education, a detailed profile of adult students is constructed. In an explorative survey, we subsequently try to further reveal the profile, motivations, barriers and experiences of adults in higher education and the consequences on their professional careers. Additionally, a selection of institutes are questioned about the efforts made, related to lifelong learning, the difficulties they experience by doing so and the means spent. Finally, the existing instruments to facilitate a return to higher education are scrutinized.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

RVA panel: the composition of a panel database for longitudinal research on behalf of the federal employment agency.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve
• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Smet Mike

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project, we intend to study empirically how-given the high dependency rate (and thus cost) in social security, low labour market anticipation (esp. among the low skilled) and relatively high (net) minimum wages - the public and private markets for (child)care services can be expanded within existing budgetary restrictions and with maintenance (or improvement) of minimum incomes from work and benefits.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is an ambitious project which collects data about Europeans aged 50 and older in order to shed light on one of the most dramatic challenges in the years to come - population ageing. The project is cross-national and interdisciplinary, which introduces considerable complexity and necessitates scientific and managerial innovations. SHARE is designed to foster better understanding of the complex interactions among economic, health, psychological and social factors that determine the quality of life of the elderly. The present project involves collecting SHARE data for Flanders, a region of Belgium.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Breda Jef
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project focusses on European social policy, specifically minimum income guarantee. The background of the research is the social philosophical debate about interstate solidarity. After creating this theoretical framework, the minimum protection schemes of the EU Member States are analysed and evaluated from a social efficiency perspective. An additional question is whether the major differences in poverty between the Member States can be explained by the different social policy systems. A final part deals with the possibility, necessity and desirability of a stronger EU steering in social policy to back up the presen Open Method of Co-ordination.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Fellow: Rottiers Stijn

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Marx Ive

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main motivation for this project is that less is known about the links between welfare state arrangements and outcomes than about each separately. Outcomes are always determined by the whole policy package of which a particular arrangement is a part. Depending on the context in terms of other arrangements and the socio-economics situation, similar arrangements may well lead to very different outcomes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project involves a pilot-survey with 60 households of elderly persons (50+) in Flanders, in preparation for participation in the SHARE project in 2004. SHARE (Survey on Health, Age and Retirement in Europe) is a European multi-disciplinary research consortium, with the aim of creating a panel data set about persons of 50+ years, with data on income, health, social networks, among other aspects.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Verbist Gerlinde

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project, we intend to study empirically how-given the high dependency rate (and thus cost) in social security, low labour market anticipation (esp. among the low skilled) and relatively high (net) minimum wages - the public and private markets for (child)care services can be expanded within existing budgetary restrictions and with maintenance (or improvement) of minimum incomes from work and benefits.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: Breda Jef
• Co-promoter: Meulemans Herman
• Co-promoter: Van Steenberge Josse

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This research project sets out to explore the problematic nature of income inequality in contemporary post-industrial society. The key question is how today absolute and relative income position are related to social segmentation. More specifically it is our goal to find out in how far income and income inequality determine other aspects of social inequality. The impact of income and income distribution on various social areas seem less straightforward than it used to be. On the one hand there are indication that the former determining character of incomes has diminished while on the other hand the relative income position is still a crucial factor in explaining social inequalities. The research project will consist of two part. First, the international literature on the link between income inequality and other social inequalities will be summarised and analysed. Second, we plan to do empirical research for Belgium.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Goossens Luc
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri
• Co-promoter: Pelleriaux Koen

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Belgian Federal government decided to organise a last census in 2001 (the Social Economic Survey). This project looks at the possibilities to update the 2001 census data on level of education with data from the Flemish government.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Pelleriaux Koen
• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Goossens Luc
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri
• Co-promoter: Van den Bosch Karel

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The network brings together scholars from Europe and beyond in seminars and workshops on this theme. Major research on basic labour market transitions and transitions into other spheres of social life like learning, caring, unemployment and retirement shall be compared across the countries to contribute to detailed proposals of the reform of the Euopean social model.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project we investigate the relationship between transport use and socio-economic inequality. The existing databases (a.o. PSBH, Census) will be examined in order to draw up a socio-economic profile of transport users. By means of the microsimulation model MISIM we intend to measure the consequences of policy measures on income distribution and poverty. Attention will be focused on the effect of policy alternatives to encourage the use of public transport and to discourage the use of cars.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van den Bosch Karel
• Co-promoter: Cantillon Bea
• Co-promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The focus of research at the Centre for Social Policy (CSP) is on poverty, income distribution and the welfare state. According to the interests of the Phd. Students, the following research areas can be the subject of the doctoral training: 1. Study of poverty and social security outcomes in an international context, to gain better insights into the mechanisms determining the relative effectiveness of social security, unemployment schemes, family policy and social assistance programs. 2. Study of the dynamics of poverty and subsistence insecurity, by the use of large scale socio-economic panel surveys. 3. Development, validation and use of alternative measures of poverty. 4. Construction, evaluation and validation of comparable quantitative social indicators; developing benchmarks for social quality based on a comparative analysis. 5. Evaluation of social security and tax reform proposals by means of tax-benefit models.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This thematic network has both scientific and policy-related objectives. It is co-ordinated by the EFSQ (European Foundation on Social Quality, Amsterdam). The scientific objective is to build on the work of the represented teams and other related projects in the EU in order to construct an index of social quality that can be applied on a regular basis in all member states and across the EU as a whole. The network will be a scientific team made up of representatives from nearly all member states. Via a process of iteration it will develop together an agreed set of indicators of social quality.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Lathouwer Lieve

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The major objective of the network activities is to stimulate co-operative research on how employment growth for the low skilled can be furthered while avoiding the pitfalls of in-work poverty.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cantillon Bea

Research team(s)

• Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

Project type(s)

• Research Project