| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.22 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Income inequality, including income poverty, has been a major source of debate and concern in our world. In the last decades, inequality has been increasing in richer countries. The aim of this research is to explain and compare income poverty and/or its control in the European Union 28 Member States, during the crisis years (2007-2013). We use Schmidt and Sickles (1984) time-invariant inefficiency model to estimate a single equation stochastic production frontier model and derive inefficiency measures. The output and inputs of the model are respectively the control of poverty, per capita GDP, and per capita redistributive policies (total public spending on Education, Healthcare, and Social Security, per capita). The estimated frontier mirrors a Kuznets’s surface with two input variables, allowing to derive the latter. Results show that per capita GDP and per capita redistributive policies produce a positive effect on controlling income poverty. Results also show that the most efficient Member States in controlling poverty inequality are not necessarily the wealthiest ones.
Description
Keywords
Income poverty control Public redistributive policies Stochastic production frontier analysis Kuznets surface