Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets: International and Comparative Policy Perspectives(Research in Comparative and Global Social Policy)

Research into minimum income standards and reference budgets around the world is compared in this illuminating collection from leading academics in the field. From countries with long established research traditions to places where it is relatively new, contributors set out the different aims and objectives of investigations into the minimum needs and requirements of populations, and the historical contexts, theoretical frameworks and methodological issues that lie behind each approach.

Table of Contents:
Foreword ~ Professor the Baroness Ruth Lister of Burtersett Part 1: Introduction; An introduction to minimum income standards and reference budgets: International and comparative policy perspectives ~ Christopher Deeming; Part 2: 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 being 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 3: Cross-national & Comparative Perspectives; Chapter 16. 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 4: Policy & Practice; Basic needs budgets in policy and practice ~ Gordon M. Fisher; Establishing minimum income Standards in policy and practice ~ Donald Hirsch; Minimum income standards in the basic income debate ~ Malcolm Torry; Part 5: 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 work with Policy Press is Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (2019).