Assessing income support where no national minimum income scheme exists. Is it possible to apply the model family method to the Italian case?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the application of a specific comparative methodology, the model family method (MFM), in measuring the income derived from minimum income schemes. The application of the MFM to the analysis of this policy field shows several criticalities such as the difficulty to analyze countries in which no national scheme exists, and in which both the intra-national variations and the discretionary power of street-level bureaucrats are significant. Stemming from the application of the MFM to the Italian case in the framework of an international project, the article analyzes whether and how this method can be developed also in said countries. In particular, it shows that, in order to do so, specific methodological choices and assumptions are necessary, built on a mixed research strategy aimed at complementing the data collected from institutional sources with in-depth interviews with social workers and the use of the vignettes technique.