Search results

Unemployment can negatively affect individuals, their families and communities in various ways. When individuals are out of work may experience mental and physical health problems, material deprivation and poverty. This study aims to examine the impact of unemployment benefits on health and living standards in Turkey.

The authors employ a structural equation modelling (SEM) to consider the simultaneous relationships among the unemployment benefits and the latent variables of health and Standard of Living (SoL). We propose a fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design (FRDD) and a Regression Kink Design (RKD) within the SEM framework to infer causality. For the empirical analysis, the authors employ the panel Income and Living Conditions Survey (ILCS) in 2007–2015.

The authors’ findings suggest that those who receive these benefits are more likely to report higher levels of health and improve their living standards compared to the non-recipients. Furthermore, unemployment benefits replacement rates are associated with improved levels in health and living standards. The authors’ results indicate a substantial heterogeneity on the impact of unemployment benefits since males, low educated individuals and those belonging to the lower levels of income are affected more in terms of their health status and living standards.

The majority of earlier studies have focused on the impact of unemployment benefits on labor outcomes. The originality of this study is that we implement the FRDD and RKD within the SEM framework to explore, simultaneously, the impact of unemployment insurance on health and living standards. Moreover, future research studies can implement this framework to infer causality and explore the impact of related policies and reforms.

Concepts of disability have evolved over the past few decades. The focus of attention has shifted from disability as a state, a consequence of disease, to disability being included as just one of many components of health. This has been realised in part through the implementation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Despite these developments and increased focus in recent years, reliable disability data, particularly from low-income countries, are lacking.We present an innovative approach to measuring disability in a population that is based on some conceptual elements of the ICF, namely activity limitations and participation restrictions. The results are derived from studies on the living conditions among people with disabilities in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi conducted between 2001 and 2004. From the data analysis perspective, the research challenge lies in a shift in the dependent variable from a dichotomous outcome measure (disability as a state: disabled, not disabled) to a continuous measure of activity limitations and participation restrictions – mirroring the range of disability we see in society.These measures of activity limitations and participation restrictions must however not be interpreted in isolation, but as integral to the environment, society and culture from which they are derived. This will require an expanded view of disability data and effect substantially greater measurement challenges.

The current economic crisis has significantly increased unemployment, showing higher persistence than expected. However, since microdata from household surveys are issued with delay, they do not allow a prompt analysis of the impact of the economic cycle on households’ living conditions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a microsimulation methodology to achieve an evaluation of the impact of economic shocks in terms of household’s living conditions to guide policy makers.

The microsimulation technique developed in this paper is based on a nowcasting approach by using different sources of data and by taking into account a whole set of potential transitions across the different statuses of the labour market and the related changes in income. To validate this microsimulation method, the authors apply it to Italy, a country that has been deeply affected by the crisis.

Data have been drawn from the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey for Italy (IT SILC) and from the Labour Force Survey for Italy. The latter data allow us to take into account the changes in the labour market status of individuals due to economic shocks. The validation results support the capability of the model to simulate the effect of the cycle before actual data on income are available.

The results obtained would encourage the use of the suggested methodology to anticipate the effect of the economic cycle on household’s income therefore enabling the design of effective policies to sustain household income with positive practical and social implications.

Distinct from other microsimulation techniques the methodology proposed in this paper allows us to take into account behavioural effects and the change in the composition of employment and unemployment. Moreover, the authors contribute to the existing literature by considering a whole set of transitions across different labour market statuses and the related changes in income.

In this study, we attempt to estimate the disability costs of households employing the Standard of Livings (SoL) approach and evaluate the impact of the Universal health system reform implemented in Turkey in 2008.

We apply a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), which simultaneously estimates the disability and living standard equations, including unobserved latent variables. Moreover, we apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework to investigate the impact of the universal health insurance (UHI) system and the Green Card programme on living standards. The empirical analysis relies on data derived from the cross-sectional Household Budget Surveys (HBS) during the period 2002–2013.

Our findings suggest a negative and significant impact of disability on SoL, where disability costs reach the 23% of the household income, which is equivalent almost to $2,600 (USD). Furthermore, the disability costs are reduced from $4,450 to $2,260 due to the UHI and the Green Card programme.

A major limitation of the study is the data structure, which is based on repeated cross-sectional surveys. By using panel data, it is possible to follow the same individual across time and to implement panel data models to control for unobserved heterogeneity and omitted-variable bias.

Disability has adverse effects on living standards. The estimation of the disability-related costs may provide a useful guide on policy planning and the design of social benefits.

The contribution of this paper is that it is the first study estimating the disability-related costs in Turkey. Furthermore, the contribution lies in the investigation of the 2008 health reform and the Green Card programme and its impact on disability costs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough assessment of the current statistical sources in Spain, as well as new indicators that extend and improve the European Typology on Homelessness and Housing Exclusion (ETHOS) to better address every housing exclusion situation.

The main categories of the ETHOS typology are reviewed: definition, subcategories and the availability of data and statistical sources in Spain. The assessment of the information available is carried out by considering objective and subjective indicators. Additionally, the inclusion of new subcategories is proposed.

The strengths and weaknesses of the ETHOS model when applied in the study of housing exclusion are highlighted, and the need to have an appropriate set of indicators for measuring housing exclusion is stressed. The ETHOS typology may be the reference conceptual framework to elaborate a system of housing exclusion indicators. However, it would be necessary to extent this model in order to cover some situations of exclusion risk owing to insecure housing for economic reasons and environmental degradation, and including the subjective assessment of the people affected by these processes.

This study implements the ETHOS methodology checking the statistical information available distinguishing between objective and subjective indicators. Further, this paper shows an integrated overview of the four main ETHOS categories (rooflessness, houselessness, insecure and inadequate housing) with the four types of housing restrictions (accessibility, stability, adequacy and habitability).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether social relations are associated with the health of workers. It uses two types of health status measures – self-reported and more objective health – and it considers two types of social relationships: individual social relations, measured through the frequency of meetings with friends; and contextual social relations, the average frequency with which people meet friends at the community level.

A probit model is estimated from the worker sample accounting for the possibility of selecting individuals in the labour market (selection equation). Then expanded probit models (including inverse Mills ratio) are used on both self-reported and more objective health measures using new data from an income and living conditions survey carried out in 2006 by the Italian Statistics Office. Robustness checks are employed to deal with possible problems when interpreting the results.

The study finds that social relations are correlated with health status of workers with differences among health outcomes. Social relations at the individual level are positively correlated with self-perceived health (SPH), negatively associated with chronic condition (CC) but not related to limitations in daily activities. Contextual social relations are negatively linked with CC and limitations in daily activities but not correlated with SPH.

Although the results are consistent with the argument that individual and contextual social relations influence workers’ health, the author cannot prove causality.

Improving the health of workers could reduce health inequalities and could increase work performance. The implication at a macro-economic level of an improvement in the health conditions of workers is relevant in Italy, where the level of labour productivity is low compared to the other developed countries (OECD, 2013). Policy makers should consider the benefits, both at social and economic level, of public policies designed to improve the social and physical infrastructure of social relations.

This paper is the first to relate individual and contextual social relations simultaneously to workers’ health. Moreover, it makes several other contributions to this area: it control for unobserved worker heterogeneity; it uses both subjective self-reported health as well as a more objective measure of health based on CC and limitations in activities of daily living; it adopts a multilevel approach to examine in the same framework the individual and contextual relationship of social relations with individual health status of workers, in so doing, filling a gap in the literature on social capital and public health.

This paper aims to focus on non-poor households that during the Great Recession experienced economic stress (ES). That is, whose economic comfort was reduced taking into account their previous living standards. The paper seeks to determine how the crisis has affected this extensive (and key) social group.

The analysis has been performed in a dynamic way. The non-poor households ES situation and its changes are studied throughout the period 2008-2016 by taking the four-year intervals provided by the longitudinal Spanish Living Conditions Survey. The authors discuss and select the circumstances to determine whether ES has occurred. To identify which variables determine the probability of suffering ES the authors use a standard logit model.

The main variable is the tenure status of the dwelling: property with a mortgage or rented multiply the risk of ES by up to 3.5 times. ES falls as the household’s work intensity increases. However, an improvement in the employment situation cannot be associated with a reduction in ES probability. The main socio-demographic variables behave as predicted: woman householder, grow in the number of household members and bad health increase the risk of ES, and the higher the level of education of the householder, the lower the risk.

There are very few studies regarding the people above the poverty line. Exploring and analyzing the factors determining the sensitivity of the largest part of the population to the crisis is very relevant, as the pace of the economic recovery depends largely on them.

As summarized in our introductory Chapter 1, the trend toward ever-healthier elderly seems to have been broken (Figures 8 and 9). The share of young and middle-aged Swedish men and women, reporting very good or good health status to the Survey of Living Conditions, started to decline already in the 1980s. As a consequence, as the cohorts are graying, the share of elderly people, reporting very good or good health status, has also begun to decline. Increasing health problems among Swedish oldest old have also been reported from the SWEOLD (SWEdish panel of living conditions of oldest OLD) study (Parker et al., 2004). Similar trends have been reported for the United States and for the entire EU-15. Part of the explanation appears to be the growth at young ages in allergy, asthma, diabetes, other long-standing illness, and health problems associated with obesity. In the time perspective of our simulations, these trends in long-standing health problems might have less impact on the health of the elderly (and their demand for healthcare and old-age care or their life expectancy) than on the health of people in their middle ages but still be important. In this section, we will present some additional information on the development of health status during the last 20 years or so for the Swedish population.

This article seeks to describe online tools for surveying and improving quality of life for people with disabilities living in assisted living centers and special education service organizations.

Ensuring a decent quality of life for disabled people is an important welfare state goal. Using well‐accepted quality of life conceptions, online diagnostic and planning tools were developed during an Institute for Education, University of Zurich, research project.

The diagnostic tools measure, evaluate and analyze disabled people's quality of life. The planning tools identify factors that can affect their quality of life and suggest improvements.

Instrument validity and reliability are not tested according to the standard statistical procedures. This will be done at a more advanced stage of the project. Instead, the tool is developed, refined and adjusted in cooperation with practitioners who are constantly judging it according to best practice standards.

The tools support staff in assisted living centers and special education service organizations.

These tools offer comprehensive resources for surveying, quantifying, evaluating, describing and simulating quality of life elements.