Didier Fouarge

Welfare Regimes and Poverty Dynamics: The Duration and Recurrence of Poverty Spells in Europe

This article seeks to evaluate how well the different welfare states of Europe perform in terms of preventing recurrent and persistent income poverty and what household and individual characteristics influence poverty duration. Because we use cross-national data on longitudinal poverty, we are able to increase our understanding of the effect of the institutional context within which poverty occurs. We show that country welfare regimes strongly influence long- run poverty, with social democratic countries reducing the level of persistent and recurrent poverty. Liberal and Southern European regime countries have both higher rates and longer durations of poverty. Despite their dissimilar patterns of poverty duration, European welfare states display rather similar patterns of exit from poverty, once we control for duration. There is some evidence that high initial exit rates from poverty in social democratic and corporatist countries decrease quickly whereas those in liberal and Southern European countries remain high, which could suggest lower levels of incentives in the former.

The Effect of Early Retirement Incentives on the Training Participation of Older Workers

Human capital theory predicts that older workers are less likely to participate in on-the-job training than younger workers, due to lower net returns on such investments. Early retirement institutions are likely to affect these returns. Using the European Community Household Panel we show that older workers participate less in training, and that early retirement institutions do indeed matter. Generous early retirement schemes discourage older workers from taking part in training, whereas flexible early retirement schemes encourage this. Finally, the results suggest that in most European countries training can keep older workers longer in the labour market.

Longitudinal Poverty and Income Inequality a Comparative Panel Study for the Netherlands, Germany and the UK

A valve having a valve closing member rotatably supported on one or more valve stems which are positionally infinitely adjustable is disclosed. The valve has a valve body defining a bore with an upper passageway extending from the bore. A valve stem extends coaxially through the passageway and rotatably supports the valve closing member in the bore. A cartridge is coaxially located within the passageway between the valve body and the stem. The cartridge captures the valve stem and engages the passageway via screw threads allowing for infinite positional adjustment. The cartridge also houses bearings for rotation of the stem and seals for sealing the passageway. The valve body may have a second passageway coaxially aligned with the first passageway in which a second valve stem is located. The second stem engages the passageway via screw threads allowing for infinite positional adjustment. The adjustable stems allow the valve closing member to remain perfectly centered within the bore for maximum valve operational life.

Persistent Poverty in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK

Society for Population Economics (ESPE 2000), June 15-17 2000, Bonn. ♦ The first author is researcher at WORC-TISSER, Tilburg Institute for Social Security Research, and OSA, the Institute for Labour Studies, at Tilburg University. The second author is professor in labour and social security studies and director of TISSER. He is also research director of OSA. Corresponding author: Didier Fouarge, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, the Netherlands. Tel.:++31 (0)13 4663095 / 3001. Fax. ++31 (0)13 4663349. E-mail: fouarge@kub.nl PERSISTENT POVERTY IN THE NETHERLANDS, GERMANY

Examining flexible labour in Europe : the first three waves of the ECHP

This paper uses the European Community Household Panel study (ECHP) to profile labour market experiences in the European Union. Cross-sectional snapshots of labour markets miss out on part of the range of transitions between employment and non-employment. Panel data allows a more accurate assessment of the degree to which experience of unemployment and household work poverty are shared or concentrated among sections of national populations. Indeed, we find that the proportion of months which individuals and which all working age adult members of households spent in unemployment accounts for some variations in labour market experiences. This paper demonstrates the value of focusing on transitions between employment and non-employment (as opposed to tracking transitions in and out of unemployment) when examining the impact of the flexible labour market on earnings and poverty. We also examine the consistency of individual employment histories, and propose strategies for dealing with inconsistencies in information offered by respondents.