European Union Statistics On Income And Living Conditions Research Articles

Her class and his class: Does social class matter for fertility?

This work explores the association between fertility behaviour and occupational social classes, over and above educational and income resources. We use European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data, pooling the longitudinal component for fourteen countries between 2005 and 2017. We compare the effect of the female partner's social class with that of the male partner on the likelihood of having a child, distinguishing between the effect on the first and the second child. We find consistent evidence that, vis-à-vis income and education, occupational social class does play an additional role in fertility behaviour. However, it does so differently depending on the sex of the partner and the different parities considered. Our findings indicate that when her partner is employed, the occupational social class she belongs to becomes a more significant factor and plays a pivotal role in influencing fertility behaviour.

What it means to be poor: dimensions of economic hardship among older people living in poverty across Europe

Abstract There is a lack of comparative and quantitative research on how poverty manifests itself in the economic wellbeing of older people across European countries. In this study, we focus in on two central dimensions of economic wellbeing: the ability to pay for usual expenses and unexpected expenses. Our aim is to find out how often older people living at risk of poverty experience hardship on these dimensions, how these dimensions overlap, and whether the incidence of hardship differs between the poor and the non-poor. The study is based on the cross-sectional component of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2018 survey, involving 29 countries and 148,432 respondents aged 65+ years. The analysis builds on both descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression, which takes into account differences in household characteristics between the poor and the non-poor. The results reveal that for the poor, meeting unexpected expenses is a more common problem than meeting usual expenses, although they typically experience hardship on both dimensions. Hardship among the poor is more frequent in Central Eastern and some Southern European countries, while poor people living in Continental and Nordic countries tend to fare better, even though relatively large numbers in these countries lack cash margin. The non-poor do also experience hardship, but to a lesser extent. The poor experience combined hardship relatively often in Continental European countries. Based on the results, we conclude that studies should pay closer attention to the different dimensions of economic wellbeing in old age.

Usury vulnerability: measuring and modelling the phenomenon in Italy

AbstractUsury has been predominantly studied as an economic or legal phenomenon and only recently has gotten into the spotlight of sociological research. This article aims to contribute to the current literature by operationalising usury vulnerability and analysing household factors impacting it, using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for Italy. To construct usury vulnerability, we examined variables measuring a household’s financial and material well-being. As to factors impacting the phenomenon, we included those reflecting a socio-demographic position of a household (household composition and territorial position within the country, age, sex, education, and employment status of the top earner). The estimation results indicate that all micro-level factors matter in terms of usury vulnerability. Therefore, by identifying the most vulnerable social groups, the model might help develop relevant policy interventions to fight the spread of usury, especially in times of economic decline.

Housing Deprivation Among Polish Households: Prevalence and Associated Factors

Abstract Housing deprivation is a multidimensional concept that can be measured using various indicators. This study focuses on severe housing deprivation and its components – overcrowding and housing conditions problems. Severe housing deprivation means the failure to meet basic housing needs. Eurostat defines it as the simultaneous occurrence of overcrowding and housing conditions problems. All analyzed indicators of housing deprivation are based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC) 2019 survey data. The study covers households in Poland – a country facing serious problems of housing deprivation. In fact, three dimensions of housing deprivation are examined: experiencing only housing conditions problems, experiencing only overcrowding, and being severely housing deprived. The study aims to investigate the prevalence of three-dimensional housing deprivation and reveal which socioeconomic features of the household are associated with the analyzed phenomenon. To achieve these purposes, the multinomial logit model was used to assess the average marginal effects for explanatory variables. It was found that the significant factors associated with housing deprivation are tenure status, dwelling type, household income, average age of household members, their level of educational achievement, presence of disabled and unemployed people, and household type.

Social sustainability in the decarbonized welfare state: Social policy as a buffer against poverty related to environmental taxes

Decarbonization, environmental protection, and sustainable development are more topical than ever. Despite long-standing debates about the regressive profile of environmental taxes, the welfare state’s role in buffering adverse distributive impacts of climate policy is largely unexplored. We examine if social policy shields households from falling into poverty due to environmental taxes tied to consumption. We specifically focus on the importance of income replacement in social insurance and social assistance. To enable detailed assessments of the distributive outcomes of environmental policy, we impute environmental taxes into the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Our comparative analysis of 26 European countries indicates that the welfare state protects households from relative income poverty due to environmental taxes. Moreover, comparisons between educational groups suggest that both social insurance and social assistance play different yet complementary roles in reducing socio-economic gradients in poverty related to environmental taxes.

Gender pay gap in the Czech Republic: focused on management

The existence of a gender pay gap is well known. This paper focuses on the issue of the pay gap in managerial positions. It aims to examine the development of the gender pay gap in managerial positions in the Czech Republic and to identify the unexplained part of the gender pay gap, which could be an indication of gender pay discrimination. To estimate the unexplained part of the gender pay gap data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) was used and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was applied. The results show that in the period 2005-2019, the average raw gender pay gap in management was 0.22 and the unexplained part was 0.13, using the Neumark’s variant of the decomposition. Differences in women’s and men’s personal and firm characteristics could explain about one-third of the pay gap. The results also suggest that the situation has not changed much over the period considered and that the unexplained part of the gender pay gap has decreased only slightly between 2005 and 2019. Thus, reducing the gender pay gap remains a major challenge for both economic policy makers and companies in promoting corporate social responsibility policies.

Immigration and health outcomes: A study on native health perception and limitations in Europe

This study examines the impact of immigration on the self-perceived health of natives in 16 European countries from 2006 to 2018. Utilizing data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and the European Union Labor Force Survey (EU-LFS), we focus on two health outcomes: natives’ self-perceived health and health-related limitations in daily activities. Contrary to concerns, our findings indicate a positive influence of immigration on natives’ health perception and a reduction in health-related limitations. Noteworthy variations by gender and age emerge, with more pronounced benefits in countries with lower human capital. These results underscore the potential health advantages of immigration, emphasizing the necessity for nuanced immigration policies that consider societal impact and call for a comprehensive evaluation of immigration’s effects.

Health Status, Type of Contract and Labour Force Participation.

Health status, type of contract, education and age might affect labour force participation (LFP). We investigated possible factors associated with LFP among European countries. European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data of 149,798 individuals were used and the odds ratios were calculated in logistic regression analyses. LFP rates were higher among those in good health. Self-perceived poor health frequencies were higher in people with temporary contracts than in those with permanent contracts in Bulgaria, Finland, and Hungary, while they were lower in Republic of Serbia. Multivariate analyses revealed that having temporary contract, poor health, oldest age group, and lower educational level were associated with lower probability of being in paid employment in the total study population. Poor health was stronger driver of lower LFP than temporary contracts in Austria, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands. Temporary contracts were stronger driver of lower LFP than poor health in Greece, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia and total study population. Both poor health and temporary contracts were associated with lower LFP. The magnitude of these associations varied among countries. Worker's health status differed by type of contract in Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland and Serbia.

The Use of Spatial Information in Area-level Models: An Evaluation Based on Auxiliary Data Availability

The small area estimation (SAE) theory is widely used when local or domain-specific reliable estimates based on survey data are needed. Small area model-based estimates use a model that links the response variable to some auxiliary information borrowing strength from the related areas. When geographical information on the areas of interest is available, the specification of a spatial area level model can increase the estimates’ efficiency, depending on available auxiliary data. In this article, we first review the most popular area level spatial models, and we then compare their performance under two alternative scenarios of auxiliary information availability to estimate the average equivalized household income in Italian Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs) using the EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) survey data. Our findings suggest that the spatial information can “fill the gap” when the covariates do not have a high predictive power, a crucial result when there is lack of auxiliary data. AMS Subject Classification: 62D05, 62G05, 62H11

What explains the differences in material deprivation between rural and urban areas in Poland before and during the COVID-19 pandemic?

We examined the relationships between the compositional changes in demographic and socioeconomic factors and the changes in the prevalence of material deprivation in rural and urban areas in Poland. Using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for 2019–2020, we applied the Fairlie decomposition approach for a logit model. We found that the important characteristics affecting a gap in material deprivation between rural and urban areas are: equivalized income, the level of education, the type of household, and the presence of disabled or unemployed people in the household. A non-significant effect of the pandemic on the material deprivation gap between rural and urban areas was observed.

Parental unemployment and adolescents’ subjective wellbeing—the moderating role of educational policies

Abstract Crossover effects of parental unemployment on subjective wellbeing of children attract growing attention in research on social inequalities. Recent economic crises call for identifying policies that mitigate the adverse effects of unemployment. Building on the theoretical insights from Capability Approach, we examine the relationship between parental unemployment and subjective wellbeing of adolescents across countries with different educational policies. We use multilevel modelling and data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We combine microdata on 45,992 adolescents in 32 countries with macro-level indicators of educational policies. We find that parental unemployment is associated with lower subjective wellbeing among adolescents, but the magnitude of this association varies depending on access to financial support for participation in education. Adolescents who receive educational allowances and who live in countries with broader access to such support are less harmed by parental unemployment.

The effect of sample attrition in the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions on the estimates of Eurostat's Healthy Life Years.

Eurostat's official Healthy Life Years (HLY) estimates are based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) cross-sectional data. As EU-SILC has a rotational sample design, the largest part of the samples are longitudinal, health-related attrition constituting a potential source of bias of these estimates. Bland-Altman plots assessing the agreement between pairs of HLY based on total and new rotational, representative samples demonstrated no significant, systematic attrition-related bias. However, the wide limits of agreement indicate considerable uncertainty, larger than accounted for in the confidence intervals of HLY estimates.

Young Households’ Diminishing Access to Homeownership Attainment in Europe

This multi-country article focuses particularly on homeownership among the young. After all, relying on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data in twelve European countries, we can see that in contrast to the aggregate homeownership rate of ‘all’ households (i.e., no matter what age the households’ heads are) that has remained relatively stable, the aggregate homeownership rate of young households (with heads aged 0–35 years) has fallen substantially in Europe in recent decades. Multiple analyses and quantitative comparisons confirm the stylized fact that acquiring a home has indeed become a challenge for young adult households (also no matter the income quartile in which they fall); rather than that, however, their lowering homeownership rates are simply due to changing sociodemographic characteristics (such as having children later in life and staying longer in education). Moreover, it is unveiled that young tenants and lower income young households are especially disadvantaged with regard to access to the housing market. Through our actual research, we aim to answer the question: Has the government’s fiscal policy strengthened or weakened the declining trend in young people’s homeownership? After all, some evidence exists of an MID having a perverse effect, i.e., capitalizing on higher housing prices. However, multilevel mixed-effects logistic regressions reveal that the use of a mortgage interest deduction (MID) has had a significant positive effect on young adults’ homeownership probability—with the strongest effect for the highest incomes. We believe that all the above results are—in the first place—relevant for governments that are willing to stimulate homeownership. They indicate that some (additional) policy interventions are indeed needed, next to or instead of granting an MID, and that the focus of housing policy should also (and more) be on tenants and those with lower incomes.

The Sensitivity of the Healthy Life Years Indicator: Approaches for Dealing with Age-Specific Prevalence Data

The Healthy Life Years (HLY) indicator is the official European Union indicator and a cornerstone of many health policies used in over 15 countries in the EU region to set national health plans and monitor targets. It is also used to investigate trends over time in the proportion of total life years spent in good or poor health, socioeconomic inequalities in health and mortality and the male-female health survival paradox. Based on the Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI) included in the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), a great amount of effort has been directed at harmonising and making HLY comparable across countries. Nonetheless, the characteristics of the age-specific prevalence distribution are still rarely accounted for, regardless of the fact that patterns of prevalence often fluctuate considerably by age. In addition, the impact of assumptions used at very young ages on HLY estimates are seldom discussed, despite the fact that the majority of policies and initiatives at the EU level use HLY at birth, while data on health is only available after age 16. In this paper, we assess whether smoothing the age-specific prevalence distributions by different methods, extrapolating to older ages and changing assumptions at younger ages affect HLY estimates. Overall, assumptions made before age 15 are the most important and affect women and men differently, thus affecting HLY at birth for some countries. Estimates at age 65 are very slightly impacted. Generalised linear models (GAMs) seem promising for harmonising and extrapolating to older ages, while using polynomials or aggregating into 5-year age groups seem best for younger ages. As most EU policies use HLY at birth and by sex for developing and monitoring health policies, caution is needed when estimating HLY at birth.
 * This article belongs to a special issue on “Levels and Trends of Health Expectancy: Understanding its Measurement and Estimation Sensitivity”.

25 Years of Experience in Household Sample Surveys in the Official Statistics of Ukraine: Main Assets, Problems, Prospects

Since 1998, the state statistics of Ukraine has accumulated a huge experience in organizing and conducting household sample surveys in accordance with international recommendations and standards. Nowadays, the harmonized system of surveys includes the Household Living Conditions Survey, the Labor Force Survey and the Survey of Household Agricultural Activities in rural areas. About 100,000 households are surveyed annually, which represent all private households in various samples of these surveys. A significant number of specialists with the necessary knowledge and skills have been trained in the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (hereinafter - SSSU), territorial bodies of the SSSU.
 The article considers the main characteristics of the SSSU experience in the field of methodology and practice of organizing and conducting the household sample surveys, collecting and processing surveys’ data, statistical indicators estimation. The strengths and weaknesses of the acquired experience, potential directions for improvement of surveys, risks that may affect the quality of their results in the future, plans for the development of the system of sample surveys and the use of new methods of data collecting and processing are discussed.
 It is noted that the acquired experience made it possible to approach in 2021 to the development of the basis for introduction of such actual survey in Ukraine as the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC), to foresee the use of new data collection technologies CAPI, CATI and CAWI without any particular problems.
 At the same time, it is shown that some important methodologies regarding the estimation of indicators based on survey results have not been implemented. It is noted that an urgent problem for the SSSU is the use of "big data" in household surveys, which provides the opportunity of significantly reducing the burden on households during the survey, improving the completeness and timeliness of information about them, reducing costs for survey providing, etc. Such data could provide also estimation of certain important statistical indicators during the war. The risks of an accelerated transition for conducting the state household sample surveys mainly using CATI and CAWI technologies are discussed, related to the possibility of a significant deterioration in the quality of the survey results due to the lack of relevant skills of the SSSU specialists, insufficient level of Internet use by the population, lack of population and household registers with quality data in Ukraine, etc.

European Housing Markets at a Turning Point – Risks, Household and Bank Vulnerabilities, and Policy Options

European housing markets are at a turning point as the cost-of-living crisis has eroded real incomes and the surge in interest rates has made borrowers more vulnerable to financial distress. This paper aims to (i) shed light on the risks in European housing markets, (ii) quantify household vulnerabilties, (iii) assess banking sector implications and (iv) examine policies’ effectiveness using simulations based on microdata from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) and EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC). Under the baseline IMF macroeconomic forecast, the share of households that could struggle to meet basic expenses could rise by 10 pps reaching a third of all households by end 2023. Under an adverse scenario, 45 percent of households could be financially stretched, representing over 40 percent of mortgage debt and 45 percent of consumer debt. The impact on the banking sector seems contained under the baseline forecast, though there are pockets of vulnerability. A 20 percent house price correction could deplete CET1 capital by 100-300 basis points. Fiscal measures, such as subsidies to the bottom income tercile, could save 7 percent of households from financial distress at an estimated cost of 0.8 percent of GDP.

Assessing the contribution of migration related policies to equity in access to healthcare in European countries. A multilevel analysis

Access to good healthcare and the conditions for good health is one of the central dimensions of immigrant integration. National health policies play a major role in equipping residents with the necessary entitlements to accessible and acceptable healthcare services. Rarely analysed so far is the contribution of migration-related health policies to equity in access to healthcare between immigrants and the general population. To address this gap, this study analysed whether the extent to which migration is considered within national health policies moderates the association between immigration status and subjectively perceived unmet medical need in Europe. Using data from the 2019 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey in combination with the Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) a multilevel analysis was carried out assessing the cross-level interaction between immigration status and MIPEX scores controlling for individual-level factors such as age, gender, education and employment status. While our results showed that immigrants are more likely to report unmet medical need than the general population (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) = 1.32; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22–1.43), the cross-level interaction indicated increased relative inequality in unmet medical need between immigrants and the general population in countries with high MIPEX scores compared to countries with low MIPEX scores (aOR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.18–1.63). The main reason for this increase of inequality on the relative scale was the overall lower prevalence of unmet medical need in countries with high MIPEX scores. In conclusion, our findings indicate that even in countries with relatively migration-friendly health policies inequalities in access to healthcare between immigrants and the general population persist.

Digitally Deprived Children in Europe

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the need for internet connectivity and technological devices across the population, but especially among school-aged children. For a large proportion of pupils, access to a connected computer nowadays makes the difference between being able to keep up with their educational development and falling badly behind. This paper provides a detailed account of the digitally deprived children in Europe, according to the latest available wave of the European Union – Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We find that 5.4% of school-aged children in Europe are digitally deprived and that differences are large across countries. Children that cohabit with low-educated parents, in poverty or in severe material deprivation are those most affected.

Does Education Affect Income Inequality? A Comparative Review of Fourteen European Countries

For years, income inequality and its sources have remained the focus of attention of many researchers. The present article aims to expand and update the knowledge concerning the dimensions of household income inequality in European countries. The paper focuses on the association between the educational attainment and income inequality. It is hypothesised that the different level of income inequality observed in different countries can depend on the educational attainment of the society. Therefore, the main research objective of the article is to explain how the education level of the head of household affects income inequality in fourteen West-EU countries. The analysis also has two empirical aims: to assess the divergence in the mean incomes of the distinguished subgroups of households and to measure how much of the overall inequality can be attributed to the distance between these subgroups rather than to inequalities within them. To this end, the Generalised Entropy measures were applied, using the representative microdata derived from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). The obtained results indicate that the education level has a significant impact on the income variability between households, with some differences between countries. The study also revealed that the higher proportion of people with the lowest level of education, the higher inter-group income differentiation. Moreover, the study demonstrates that most countries with a high proportion of well-educated people also show low levels of inequality at the bottom of the distribution. This suggests that income inequality could be controlled through the development of education.

How the Great Recession changed class inequality: Evidence from 23 European countries

The question of whether economic recessions increase or decrease the earnings gap between the working and upper-middle class is debated. We study this issue and examine the Great Recession period using two different analytical strategies: three-level multilevel models and multivariate analysis over time. Based on EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data in 23 countries from 2004 to 2017, our results under both analytical strategies provide robust evidence that, by and large, the Great Recession widened the earnings gap between the working and upper-middle class. The effect magnitude is sizable; an increase of 5 percentage points in the unemployment rate is associated with an increase in the class earnings gap of approximately 0.10 log points.