Sorry for any cross-posting
---
Dear colleagues,
We would like to draw your attention to our second July Policy Brief -
the 45th issue in our Policy Brief series -
"Exclusion from Material Resources among Older People in EU Countries:
New Evidence on Poverty and Capability Deprivation"
by Asghar Zaidi
The salient features of the current European economic climate are not
easy to view with optimism: an uncertain recovery from recession,
uncomfortably high levels of unemployment, Eurozone debt crises and the
longer-term challenges of population ageing and sustainability of social
welfare systems - all make for hard reading. Yet, our age may need the
optimism and industry of the Dickensian character Wilkins Micawber, a
man from the literature of another age, but who was ultimately able to
gain the reward he aspired.
Glaring parallels illuminate the poverty of 1850s Victorian England and
the current EU polity. As the 2008 recession abates, most European
economies are returning - uncertainly - to positive growth. EU
unemployment rates average at 10%, common currency problems are testing
community solidarity while budgetary cutbacks initiated in many member
States are impacting strongly on the public benefits and services for
vulnerable groups (particularly, children and older people and people
with disabilities). The impact on future generations of elderly -
cohorts which are growing in number just as the working populations
supporting them declines - depends to a large part on how current
problems are resolved at country, regional and European level.
This Policy Brief examines the picture for the current generation of
older people, with particular reference to their exclusion from material
resources, an absence which triggers and identifies other forms of
exclusions for older people. Income is used as a primary measure of
exclusion (following Atkinson), but Sen's ideas, emphasising agency
freedom and capability aspects of welfare, are also adopted. What
emerges is a degree of variation in the relative ranking of countries
according to which of the two measures is adopted. The capability
approach measures alter significantly the relative ranking of EU
countries when compared with the income-based measure. Eastern European
EU countries fare much worse in terms of capability deprivation of older
people, while the Western European countries improve in their relative
standing. What emerges is the clear methodological implication that
income-based measures provide only an incomplete picture and must be
complemented with non-monetary measures (such as capability deprivation
measures reported in this Brief) for a more satisfactory snapshot of the
material conditions of older Europeans.
More: http://www.euro.centre.org/detail.php?xml_id=1939
Please feel free to forward the Policy Brief to colleagues who might be
interested.
Sincerely yours,
Annette Hexelschneider, Dipl.-Ing.
Head of Knowledge and Information Management Support Unit
European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research
(Affiliated to the United Nations)
Berggasse 17
A-1090 Vienna (Austria)
Tel: +43-1-319 45 05-23
Fax: +43-1-319 45 05-19
[log in to unmask]
http://www.euro.centre.org
http://www.euro.centre.org/hexelschneider
----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent through the Ageing in Europe
mailing list.
Please visit the homepage of the ESA Research Network
on Ageing in Europe at http://www.ageing-in-europe.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
|