findings:real benefit levels increased in most countries, benefit levels increasing more than consumer prices; income replacement rates mixed outcomes with decreases in some countries where real benefit levels increased
channels:bulk of increases comes from deliberate policy changes; but benefit levels not linked to wages and policy changes not taking into account changes in wages
It finds that real minimum income benefit levels generally increased in most countries from 1990 to 2009, with only a few countries, mostly in Eastern European welfare states, showing decreases during the time frame.
The majority of changes in real benefit levels are from deliberate policy changes and the study calculates them by a comparison of the changes in benefit levels to the changes in consumer prices.
Secondly, it finds that changes for income replacement rates are more mixed, with rates decreasing even in some countries which have increasing real benefits levels.
The study suggests this is because benefit levels are in most cases not linked to wages and policy changes also do not take changes in wages into account resulting in diverging benefit levels and wages, which may lead to exacerbating inequality gaps between income groups.
