cite: Wang2016
author: Wang, J., & Van Vliet, O.
year: 2016
title: "Social Assistance and Minimum Income Benefits: Benefit Levels, Replacement Rates and Policies Across 26 Oecd Countries, 1990-2009"
publisher: European Journal of Social Security
uri: https://doi.org/10.1177/138826271601800401
pubtype: article
discipline: economics

country: global
period: 1990-2009
maxlength:
targeting: implicit
group: low-income
data: World Bank CPI indicators & Penn World Table; Social Assistance and Minimum Income Protection Dataset (Nelson, 2013)

design: observational
method: cross-country comparative analysis
sample: 26
unit: country
representativeness: regional
causal: 0 # 0 correlation / 1 causal

theory:
limitations:  some effects may stem from exchange rate/PPP changes instead
observation:
  - intervention: direct transfers (social assistance)
    institutional: 1
    structural: 1
    agency: 0
    inequality: income
    type: 0 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
    indicator: 1  # 0 absolute / 1 relative
    measures: real wage; replacement rate
    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
    direction: 1 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
    significance: # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg

notes: due to data availability indicator for real minimum benefits and replacement rates could be constructed for 26 OECD countries
annotation: |
  An observational study on the levels of social assistance benefits and wages in a national comparative study within 26 OECD countries.
  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.