Effectiveness of Means-tested Transfers in Western Europe: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study

In recent years, the discussion about welfare state reform has often focused on the effectiveness of social security schemes. This debate is torn between calls for more effective poverty alleviation on the one hand and concerns about welfare dependency and the need for stronger targeting of social security benefits on the other. Means-tested benefits have been a major subject in this debate, since they are explicitly directed toward low-income groups. Basically, means-tested benefits are characterized by income and/or asset tests (examples are social assistance or housing benefits in most coun... Mehr ...