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Project
Een algemeen economisch model voor take-up gedrag: het samenbrengen van individueel gedrag, sociale interacties en kenmerken van stelsels voor sociale voordelen.
Virtually all developed countries and several developing countries haveset up a wide range of welfare programmes offering support to those in need. The non take-up of social assistance benefits may however seriously limit the anti-poverty effect of these programmes. Empirical evidence in OECD countries suggests that take-up can be problematic: estimates ofnon-take-up rates range between 20% and 60%.
In economic models, non-take-up is often modelled as being caused by high claim costs for eligible individuals. These claim costs include financial, non-financial, social and psychological costs and are related to individual characteristics. Only limited attention is paid to the relation between take-up behaviour and social interactions and the design and implementation of welfareprogrammes.
The aim of this project is to combine the three elementsof take-up behaviour (individual characteristics, social interactions and programme design) into one global model, which up to now does not exist. A second objective is to test the proposed theoretical model empirically by analysing several welfare programmes in Belgium and other European countries and compare them with each other. Insights from both contributions will allow us to evaluate more accurately existing and future social policies, especially with regard to income distribution, poverty and inequality.
In economic models, non-take-up is often modelled as being caused by high claim costs for eligible individuals. These claim costs include financial, non-financial, social and psychological costs and are related to individual characteristics. Only limited attention is paid to the relation between take-up behaviour and social interactions and the design and implementation of welfareprogrammes.
The aim of this project is to combine the three elementsof take-up behaviour (individual characteristics, social interactions and programme design) into one global model, which up to now does not exist. A second objective is to test the proposed theoretical model empirically by analysing several welfare programmes in Belgium and other European countries and compare them with each other. Insights from both contributions will allow us to evaluate more accurately existing and future social policies, especially with regard to income distribution, poverty and inequality.
Date:1 Oct 2009 → 24 Oct 2014
Keywords:Behavioural economics, Economic policy, Poverty, Programme design, Social interactions, Welfare programme, Social assistance, Take-up
Disciplines:Applied economics, Economic history, Macroeconomics and monetary economics, Microeconomics, Tourism
Project type:PhD project