Part of the Research in Comparative and Global Social Policy series, this is a timely overview of learnings to date and future prospects for research in an area of fast increasing significance - minimum income standards.
Research into minimum income standards around the world is compared and contrasted in this illuminating collection from leading academics in the field.
From countries where budget standards research is long established to places where it is relatively new, contributors set out the different aims and objectives of investigations into the basic needs of populations, and the historical contexts, theoretical frameworks and methodological issues that lie behind each.
For policy-makers, practitioners and social policy and poverty researchers and academics, this is a timely overview of learnings to date and future prospects for research in an area of fast increasing significance.
Table of Contents:
Foreword ~ John Veit-Wilson
Part I: Introduction
An introduction to minimum income standards and reference budgets: International and comparative policy perspectives ~ Christopher Deeming
Part II: Case Studies
From normative budget standards to consensual minimum income standards in the UK ~ Jonathan Bradshaw
Minimum Essential Standards of Living research in Ireland ~ Bernadette Mac Mahon and Robert Thornton
The French experience of reference budgets ~ Pierre Concialdi
Minimum income research in Japan: its development and political implications ~ Aya K. Abe
Measuring needs and setting standards in Singapore ~ Kok-Hoe Ng, Yu-Wei Neo, Youyenn Teo, Ad Maulod and Yi-Ting Ting
A South African pilot of the Minimum Income Standards approach ~ Gemma Wright, Matt Padley and Wanga Zembe-Mkabile
Reference budgets as tools for everyday life, evaluation and policymaking in Finland ~ Anna-Riitta Lehtinen and Kristiina Aalto
Belgian reference budgets for social participation and there use for policy purposes ~ Bérénice Storms
The development, value and application of budget standards: reflecting on the Australian experience ~ Peter Saunders
Estimating the cost of raising a child in Catalonia through the reference budgets approach ~ Irene Cussó-Parcerisas, Elena Carrillo Álvarez and Jordi Riera Romaní
Measuring poverty in the Netherlands: the generalised reference budget approach ~ J. Cok Vrooman, Benedikt Goderis, Stella Hoff and Bart van Hulst
The Norwegian reference budget ~ Marthe Hårvik Austgulen and Elling Borgeraas
Minimum budgets for Danish families ~ Jens Bonke and Anders Eiler Wiese Christensen
The Swedish Consumer Agency’s calculations of reference values for some of the most common household expense categories ~ Malin Lindquist Skogar and Ingrid Eriksson
Part III: Cross-national and comparative perspectives;
The Slovenian experience with three methods for defining the minimum income ~ Nada Stropnik
Applying the Minimum Income Standard in diverse national contexts ~ Matt Padley and Abigail Davis
The steep and winding road to comparable reference budgets in Europe ~ Tim Goedemé
Adequate income in Portugal: a comparison of two estimation methods ~ José A. Pereirinha, Elvira Pereira, Francisco Branco, Dália Costa and Inês Amaro
Part IV: Policy and practice
Basic needs budgets in policy and practice ~ Gordon M. Fisher
Establishing a national standard: the role of the UK's Minimum Income Standard in policy and practice ~ Donald Hirsch
Minimum Income Standards in the Basic Income debate ~ Malcolm Torry
Part V: Conclusions
Minimum income standards and reference budgets: past, present, future? ~ Christopher Deeming.
About the Author :
Christopher Deeming is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde, with research interests in the field of Comparative and Global Social Policy. His latest works with Policy Press are Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets: International and Comparative Policy Perspectives (2020) and Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (2019).
