Instrument Of Social Policy Research Articles

Over-Indebtedness Among Microfinance Borrowers: A Poverty Line Based Approach.

The current literature of over-indebtedness in general and microfinance in particular suffers from a serious weakness of not being able to identify an objective threshold of indebtedness level, beyond which a household can be treated as over-indebted. This paper tries to overcome this weakness by exploiting the peculiar situation in India of having a formally identified poverty line. We arrive at a measure of over-indebtedness by using per capita consumption expenditure at poverty line. Based on this definition about 39% of sample respondents (N = 210) were found to be over-indebted, mainly driven by economic shocks, earnings volatility, household income and expenditure levels, number of credit arrangements and dependence on informal sources of credit. Findings of the study highlight the need to prioritize income generating schemes over credit access promotion schemes as instruments of social policy.

Uwagi o imigracji w kontekście zadań polskiej polityki społecznej

Tekst jest częścią szerszego dyskursu, który obejmuje temat: Imigracja do Polski – społeczne, ekonomiczne i prawne implikacje dla polityki społecznej i pracy socjalnej. Zagadnienie to stało się przedmiotem zainteresowań uczestników III Tygodnia Pracy Socjalnej w Krakowie zorganizowanego przez Instytut Pracy Socjalnej Uniwersytetu Jana Pawła II 6 kwietnia 2017 roku. Wobec polityki społecznej i pracy socjalnej (postrzeganej głównie jako instrument polityki społecznej) stają niemałe wyzwania. Polska polityka społeczna ma niewielkie szanse na poradzenie sobie z problemami imigracji, skoro nie radzi sobie z problemami emigracji. Albowiem emigracja zarobkowa Polaków, spowodowana masowym bezrobociem, stała się kwestią społeczną, którą można by określić jako kwestię emigracyjną. Bezrobocie uwarunkowane jest głównie trzema czynnikami: brakiem pracy, niskimi zarobkami i wyzyskiem na rynku pracy. Polska polityka społeczna wciąż nie potrafi tych czynników przezwyciężyć czy nawet istotnie osłabić. Masowa imigracja spowoduje konieczność integracji uchodźców oraz imigrantów. Jednak ich integracja może nastąpić jedynie przy zapewnieniu im pracy zarobkowej. W Polsce przy braku pracy nie jest możliwa prawdziwa integracja. W tym kontekście ważny jest apel papieża Franciszka, kierowany do poszczególnych krajów europejskich, by przyjmowały tylko taką liczbę uchodźców czy imigrantów, którym są w stanie zapewnić integrację z własnym społeczeństwem.

Análisis del Impacto del Programa Oportunidades en el Ingreso Autónomo de sus Beneficiarios

One of the most representative instruments of social policy for fighting poverty in Mexico is the Oportunidades (opportunities in English) Program. Its performance on the demand side has generated positive results; however, the poverty figures have not presented a steady decline. Faced with this limitation, numerous studies held that poverty has to be attacked from the supply side, being the autonomous income generation the most significant anchor for this purpose. For this reason, and in order to determine the impact of the Oportunidades Program, for autonomous income generation, particularly on earnings from work, that is, if the Program promotes the creation of income from productive activities that contribute to overcoming the state of poverty and vulnerability in which millions of families live. Therefore, a Propensity Score Matching model is created on the recipient population of Oportunidades and its equivalent control group. The most significant finding was that membership of the program negatively impacts income for work, which means that being a participant does not promote the generation of earnings from work, thus requiring a change in strategy.

Europeanization in Pension Policy: the Crisis as a Game-Changer?

The actual effects of the European Union (EU) on member states’ pension policy are more extensive and complex than the contractual basis suggests. In addition to the Open Method of Coordination, a genuine instrument of social policy, ‘cross-effects’ of the freedom of the internal market mediated by the ECJ, as well as fiscal policy ‘interventions’ in member states experiencing financial difficulties have risen in importance. The sovereign debt crisis has functioned as a ‘game changer’ that re-adjusted the balance between European influence and national autonomy, but so far only for the countries hit most by the crisis. As European influence in this supposed ‘new phase’ differs markedly depending on the respective budgetary situation as well as the ‘well-preparedness’ of national pension systems due to previous reforms and as informal rather than formal ways of exerting pressure were chosen, the consequences for other member states and the European pension policy ‘architecture’ as a whole are yet unclear.

Social Inequalities in Europe The Challenge of Convergence and Cohesion

Social Inequalities in Europe The Challenge of Convergence and Cohesion

Analiza normatywna dochodów budżetowych uzyskiwanych z ceł w polskim porządku prawnym

The state budget constitutes a main institution of a budget law. It is subject to the regulation of many legal provisions, including constitutional provisions and provisions of the Act on Public Finances, which results in various properties thereof. The state budget is established by the Sejm as the most important financial plan for the state policy and an instrument of social policy, taking into consideration planned incomes and expenses of the state for the following financial year. From the point of view of incomes, the state budget includes, among others: incomes from indirect and direct taxes and non-tax incomes. Customs, as benefits of a non-tax character, which are charged by the Polish customs administration in the international trade, belong to particular types of the budget incomes. By using particular construction elements of customs, e.g. rates, reliefs or exemptions, the legislator can influence the amount of incomes it obtains. This level also depends on the amount of an import, an exchange rate as well as the scale of using tariff and non-tariff measures of customs policy.

Presidents and policy-making: has Brazil’s CCT-led anti-poverty agenda gone far enough?

ABSTRACTIn order to identify the causal mechanisms (rational learning, adaptation, and innovation) driving changes in the area of anti-poverty policy in Brazil, this article traces the micro-level decision-making processes across three presidents. It begins by laying out the politics of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in Brazil and presidential usage of this targeted social policy instrument since the 1990s. In contrast to previous presidents, President Dilma Rousseff’s decisions did not enable her rationally intended policy agenda. Why? The President him or herself is privileged as the central actor whose decision-making processes impact policy development and its subsequent performance. I will argue that prior to the most recent changes under Dilma, was the demise of CCTs being ‘good enough’ from a policy perspective. The major challenge for any president in Brazil remains low levels of political and societal consensus over the kind of social reforms required to end the intergenerational transmission of poverty in Brazil; a policy dilemma confounded by the absence of a single unifying institutional actor and the extent of power diffusion in Brazilian federalism.

Basic Income in the Finnish Context

The goal of the Finnish experiment that started this year is to try to get some evidence on how a new social policy instrument mimicking a basic income would work and what kind of behavioural consequences it would have. At this point, there are many strong arguments being made both in favour of and opposed to basic income. Unfortunately, there are not enough facts yet. The Finnish experiment hopes to change that.

Social and Solidarity Economy in South American regional governance

The article analyzes the scaling up of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) agenda in the regional integration processes of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and MERCOSUR. We ask how the SSE is being used in processes of regional policy cooperation and what implications this has for the construction of regional governance frameworks supportive of social development. Our argument is that the regional processes in the contexts of UNASUR and MERCOSUR adopt a narrow concept of SSE that defines it as a social policy instrument to combat poverty. This limits the transformative potential of the SSE agenda, a more expansionist interpretation of which would otherwise herald the strengthening of socio-productive practices as an alternative to extractivist development in the region.

MODELS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Urgency of the research is determined by the necessity to introduce new instruments of social policy and social security implementation. Target setting. Social entrepreneurship could become a tool for developing effective social policy and social security of Ukraine. The introduction of social enterprises will provide new jobs, enhance adaptation of vulnerable population groups reduce budget expenditures for social protection. However there is still a problem in determining the basic preconditions for its formation. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The approaches to the formation of economic, institutional mechanisms to ensure security. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. Insufficient attention is paid to the development of domestic models for the formation and functioning of social entrepreneurship. The research objective. Refinement of social entrepreneurship models taking into account domestic conditions for ensuring social security of the population. The statement of basic materials. The article deals with the social entrepreneurship models substantiation approaches. Specified models are substantiated in accordance with the functional features of social enterprises formulated by the authors in the context of providing social security of the population. Conclusions. To determine the procedures and rules for starting social enterprises, it is important to develop models for their formation. The is to put the following criteria should be basic for identifying social enterprise models: organizational; by sources of financing; by the composition of the contact groups; by mission or purpose. Identification of social entrepreneurship models makes it possible: 1) to orientate on possible directions of activity; 2) reflect these trends in terms of state or regional social policy; 3) clearly define the criteria for social entrepreneurship at the legislative level.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO ENERGY SAVING IN THE HOUSING SECTOR OF UKRAINE

Urgency of the research. The problems of energy efficiency and conservation are priorities in Ukraine owing to inefficient energy policy of the state. Target setting. Residential sector in Ukraine is the largest consumer of natural gas and requires significant investment in thermo-modernization of housing. This fact leads to necessity of finding ways to enhance its energy efficiency. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The problems of energy conservation and energy efficiency are the subject of research of following scientists S. Bevz, M. Bulgakov, V. Jiang, Dzhedzhula D. Zerkalov M. Kovalko, A. Komelina, O. Lyakhov, V. Mikitenko, A. Suhodolya, I. Sotnyk and others. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The problems of financial incentives for energy saving measures in the residential sector of Ukraine, including in the context of the coordination instruments of social policy with the policy of energy efficiency are understudied. The research objective. The article represents a comprehensive assessment of the system of financial incentives and anti incentives that influence energy efficiency in the residential sector. Authors also develop suggestions for incentives improvement. The statement of basic materials. The article deals with the system of financial incentives that are used in the residential sector. The effectiveness of the state and local energy efficiency programs implementation is being analyzed. The authors determine the main obstacles to the energy efficiency measures implementation by citizens and define ways of overcoming them. The researchers reveal a contradiction between guaranteeing social protection and incentives to implement energy efficiency measures and suggest the mechanism of converting subsidies to investments in energy efficiency of the housing stock. Conclusions. The proposed activities will: boost public investment in housing energy efficiency, reduce household spending on housing and communal services, reduce expenditures of the state budget for financing the subsidies and purchasing energy.

Equality vs. differentiation: on solidarity and justice in social law

The paper describes the question of the principle of equality in social law against the background of permissible differentiation and its justification. The author refers to the axiology of social law as an instrument of social policy by presenting the function of social law. He discusses the question of social justice as distributive justice, and defines the principle of social solidarity and the principle of the common good as the most important for the healthcare system.

Social Policy Instruments in Motion. Conditional Cash Transfers from Mexico to Peru

AbstractSocial policy prescriptions for Latin America have shifted significantly over recent decades. This article tracks a process by which a conditional cash transfer (CCT) to mothers, begun in a Mexican programme with some pretensions to promoting gender equality, was standardized by international organizations, becoming a policy instrument characterized by gender sensitivity, but having little attention to equality. In addition to involving certification by international organizations, this standardization process framed the CCT as an instrument of social investment and was a decontextualization of the Mexican version that had been influenced by Beijing‐style international feminism. The third phase of this trajectory was take‐up of the standard model by Peruvian policymakers and employees of the Juntos programme who overlaid their long‐standing representations of their indigenous clientele onto a supposedly ‘modern’ social policy instrument, thereby rendering it both maternalist and neo‐colonial.

Los límites de la política social durante el sexenio de Peña Nieto

Has had the Peña administration's Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (shcp) a defined position regarding the economic and social policy instruments that may have allowed the economy to grow at an average annual rate close to its potential rate, estimated up to 4.5%? Has the institution had enough room of maneuver to make this happen without more seriously affecting the conditions of inequality and maldistribution of income that people face? The economic policy documents that defined most of Peña's administration curse from 2011 onwards, for which writing was directly involved the team that leads such a Secretariat, show at least three limitations that have been present and will remain so up to the end of the sexenium: the subordination of economic growth to rising productivity; the lack of a labor policy, and the absolute declination, in 2015, of a universal social security policy (ssu), coupled with a serious effort to promote the recuperation of the minimum wage and then internal consumption.

Approaches to Empirical Analysis of Social Exclusion: International Comparison

IntroductionOver the recent decades the instruments, developed for assessment of the situation of vulnerable groups and their identification in society, have undergone essential changes. Due to rethinking of the factors of human well-being, the concept of social exclusion (Silver, 1994) was formed in the European countries in the middle of the XX century, in connection with study of poorly protected categories of citizens. In terms of social exclusion, the causes and the consequences of decreasing the people living standards should be sought beyond poverty indicators. The use of the concept enables measuring multiple disadvantages, which are manifested in the shortage of economic and structural resources; and lack of sociocultural participation. Currently, the concept of social exclusion is one of the key instruments of social policy of the European Union (Atkinson, 2004), which in recent decades has been introduced into approaches to its planning and studying in Ukraine (Libanova, 2011).The concept of social exclusion can be an effective research tool for comparing the different types of social policy efficacy as the main mechanism for preventing the emergence and spread of social exclusion. The concept's implementation in the political and scientific discourses provides an opportunity for international comparisons aimed at finding common and different manifestations, of exclusion in countries with alternative approaches to social policy formation. However, a prerequisite of cross-cultural comparisons is the use of equivalent tools for data collection. Making such a comparison implies the structural similarity of the phenomenon that is studied in different societies.Economic growth in a country does not automatically mean higher living standards of vulnerable groups, and its benefits do not always reach the poor (Muffels, 2001). Therefore, a countries high level of economic wealth does not necessarily imply reducing the share of those who can be considered as socially excluded. This suggests that there are differences in the level of social exclusion in different countries, regardless of their level of wealth.Given the above, we can formulate the following research questions:1) Is social exclusion in Ukraine structurally similar to that in the countries of Central and Eastern and Western Europe?2) What are the differences in the manifestations of social exclusion, with reference to the countries' level of wealth and its type of social policy (welfare models)?This paper aims to construct the tool for measuring social exclusion that allow comparison of this phenomenon in countries with different levels of socio-economic development and types of welfare models.Living standards in a country are largely due to the distribution of governmental social support. Various welfare models envisage differences in levels of providing support to those who are its recipients; and are at risk of social exclusion. Costa Esping-Andersen has identified (Esping-Andersen, 1990), social-democratic (Nordic), conservative corporatist (Continental) and liberal (Anglo-Saxon) models of social welfare. Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research empirically verified enhanced typology, within which the countries with Mediterranean welfare regime (Ferrera, 1996) and a group of Eastern European countries (Kovacs, 2002) were further singled out. The empirical typology of the countries was performed by cluster analysis in the space of two dimensions that characterize the pension and social security systems. Measurement of security level provided by both the systems was carried out using a scale that has the following gradations: low, medium and high.Based on analysis results, the countries were distributed as follows: 1) the socialdemocratic welfare model is characterized by the high scope of general social security systems and the high extent of pension schemes (Sweden, Denmark and Finland); 2) conservative-corporatist welfare model is characterized by medium scope of general social security systems and the medium extent of pension schemes (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria); 3) liberal model features medium scope of general social security systems and low extent of pension schemes (USA, Canada, Australia, UK and Ireland); 4) Mediterranean model is characterized by high extent of pensions schemes, but low scope of general social security systems (Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece); 5) the Group of Eastern European countries features low extent of pensions schemes and low scope of general social security systems (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) (Soede, 2004). …

Representations of inequality and social policy in the Russian Official Press, 2005–2012

The central instruments of social policy include not only social programmes but also how social problems and social inequality are represented in the media. In this article, these representations are analysed, with a particular focus on the meanings attached to actors, events and phenomena in the field of social policy and how they are produced and diffused through society by means of language, symbols and images. The aim of the study is to provide an analysis of the representations of social inequality and social policy in one of modern Russia’s official state-run newspapers. The various means of explaining social inequality in the official print media will also be revealed and explained here. This is achieved through a content analysis of the articles in Rossiiskaya Gazeta [Russian Newspaper] from 2005 to 2012.

Programas de Transferencia Condicionada y Representaciones de la Pobreza en Bolivia y Perú

Bolivia y Perú adoptaron programas de transferencias condicionadas bajo regímenes políticos diferentes. Este artículo investiga las representaciones de la pobreza, de los pobres y del Estado construidas por actores claves de estos programas sociales. A partir de una metodología cualitativa de análisis de discurso, el estudio demuestra que los propios instrumentos de políticas sociales – los programas de transferencias condicionadas – vinculan opuestas representaciones sociales de la pobreza y del rol del Estado en cada país. La principal razón de estas diferencias se encuentra en la distinta trayectoria socio-política de cada régimen político.

Financial structures, firms, and the welfare states in South Korea and Singapore

South Korea and Singapore display distinctive patterns of social provision. The Singaporean welfare state has served as the primary provider of social infrastructure and services, whereas the South Korean welfare state has developed its primary role in supporting income maintenance. These differences are not well accounted for in the existing literature, which focuses on similarities between the two regimes. This paper shows that deep institutional legacies in the two countries’ respective financial structures powerfully shaped their unique social policy instruments. In South Korea, where financial openness was low and firms relied on relationship-based financing, the corresponding long-term perspectives on production and employment encouraged the private provision of welfare-related infrastructure and services. In Singapore, where firms have relied heavily on arm's length financing, the corresponding flexible investment and employment perspectives encouraged the utilization of private income maintenance arrangements. Each country's government prioritized the mode of social provision that the firms were less willing to engage in. These findings suggest that financial liberalization may be an important determinant of welfare regimes in developing countries.

Health Insurance System Revision in the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany and the Slovak Republic

Widely used terms such as the European social model and the European social policy are not entirely accurate. Social policy belongs among the areas where the competence is shared between the Union and the Member States. Thus the European social model can be defined more as common values and social foundations, which are typical for the European area. Among the Member States are therefore substantial differences in terms of the set-up and functioning of social, health and pension systems. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the treatment of health insurance and selected aspects of health systems in selected EU countries (Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany and the Slovak Republic), and on the basis of mutual comparison to draw up recommendations for the implementation of social policy instruments at the national level and also to explain examples of good practice. The solution-seeking methodology is based on literature research, analysis of legislation in different countries and analyses of empirical statistical data from the social systems. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s5p286

Exit or Developmental Impact? The Role of ‘Graduation’ in Social Protection Programmes

The framework developed in this article illustrates how social protection with a developmental approach can deepen socioeconomic impact at individual and household level and effectively address apprehension over dependency. The starting point examines various definitions of ‘graduation’ within a social protection context – as exit from poverty, or from the social protection system, or alternatively as a process of continually strengthening household developmental outcomes. Appropriately designed and effectively implemented, a ‘graduation’ approach can sustainably promote dynamic outcomes, with inclusive economic expansion reinforcing poverty reduction, which in turn contributes to further growth and development. These micro-oriented initiatives will likely work best when embedded within a broader macro development framework that integrates and strengthens the range of social and economic policy instruments implemented by government. This article maps out a path for policymakers aiming to strengthen the pro-poor and inclusive economic growth and development impacts of social protection by incorporating a graduation approach.