Towards Cross-Country Comparable Reference Budgets in Europe: First Results of a Concerted Effort
| Author | Karel Van den Bosch,Tess Penne,Tim Goedemé,Sara Stockman,Bérénice Storms |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271501700101 |
| Published date | 01 March 2015 |
| Date | 01 March 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 17 (2015), No. 1 3
TOWARDS CROSSCOUNTRY COMPARABLE
REFERENCE BUDGETS IN EUROPE: FIRST
RESULTS OF A CONCERTED EFFORT
T G, B S, S S,
T P and K V B*
Abstract
In Europe, reference budgets are increasingly recognise d as a helpful tool for policy making
and monitoring. If developed in a cross-country comparable way, reference budgets
could, in addition, prove to be useful for cross-national learning and contextualising
the EU social indicators. However, current reference budgets are not comparable
across countries. In this article we report on the rst results of a concerted e ort to
construct comparable reference budgets for adequate social participation in Antwerp,
Athens, Barcelona, Budape st, Helsinki and Milan. We start from a single theoretical
and methodological framework and carefully track di erenc es in institutional settings,
climate, culture, and the availability and pr ices of goods and services that justify cros s-
country variations in the contents an d levels of reference budgets. Results indicate that
adequate social participation requires access to di erent goods and services in the six
cities, but that, at the same time, the needs to be ful lled are rather similar, such that
* i s article wa s awarded the Inters entia/FISS pr ize for the best pre viously unpubli shed paper
presented at the 2014 FISS Conferenc e held in Sigtuna, Sweden.
All authors ar e a l i at ed to th e H er ma n D e le ec k C en tr e f or So ci a l Po l ic y a t t he Un iv er si ty of An t wer p ,
Sint- Jacob str aat 2 , 20 00 An twer p, Be lgiu m. e author for correspondenc e is Tim Goedemé (e-mail:
tim.goedeme@ uantwerpen.be; phone: +32 3 265 55 55). e authors are grat eful to Michael Adler,
Jonathan Brads haw, Bea Cantillon, Dia na De Graeve, Eva Lefeve re, Peter Saunders, and Is tván Tóth
for comments and sug gestions on a previous dra of the paper. First results were presente d during
the 21st FISS International Research Seminar on Issues in Social Security in Sigtuna, June 2014, as
well as a number of Im PRovE meetings. e input received by participants helped to considerably
improve the paper. Fina lly, we would like to cordial ly thank our part ners in the ImPRovE project,
who developed the referenc e budgets for Athens (Elen i Kanavitsa , Alexandr os Karak itsios and
Manos Matsaga nis), Barcelona (Elena Car illo Alvare z and Irene Cussó Parcer isas), Budapest (Anikó
Bernát, Mar ianna Kopasz, Bori Simonovit s, and Péter Szivós), Helsinki (Laur i Mäkinen and Veli-
Matti Rita kallio), and Mila n (Marco Arlotti and Yuri Kaz epov). is study is nancially supported
by the European Union’s Sevent h Framework Programme (F P7/2012–2016) under g rant agreement
n. 290613 (project title: I mPRovE, http://improve-res earch.eu) and the F WO Methusalem Fund
[41/FA04 0100/FF B2998]. e aut hors take full respons ibility for the contents of the pape r and any
remaining er rors and shortcomi ngs. e views expressed in t his paper do not necess arily corres pond
to those of the fu nding agencies or the aut hors of the underlying cou ntry reports.
Tim Goedemé, Béré nice Storms, Sara Stoc kman, Tess Penne and Karel Van den Bosc h
4 Intersentia
the variation in the level of reference budget s is less than what would be expected on the
basis of di erences in median household incomes. Results also show that constructing
comparable reference budgets requires substantial and intensive coordination. We
suggest directions in which our approa ch to their construction could be improved.
Keywords: adequacy; budget standards; compar ability; mi nimum income; reference
budgets; social part icipation
1. INTRODUC TION
Reference budgets are illustrat ive priced baskets of goods and ser vices that represent a
given living sta ndard (cf. Bradsh aw 199 3; Bra dsha w and Mayh ew 2011). A numb er of E U
countries have developed reference budgets which measu re the cost of a list of core items
required for a socially acceptable standard of liv ing withi n a particula r country (e.g.
Collins et al.2012; Davis et al.2012; Ho et al.2010; Kemmetmüller and Leitner 20 09;
Konsument Verket 2009; Lehtinen et al.2011; McKay et al.2012; Preusse 2012; Statens
Institutt for forbruksforsk ing 2011; Storms and Van den Bosch 2009b; Vassileva 2 009).
In practice, reference budgets are main ly used to de ne a dec ent l ivi ng s tan dard and thi s
implies that they ca n be used for a variety of purp oses, among which the most importa nt
are: determining additional income support, settling income maintenance levels, debt
reschedul ing, nancial education, proposing alternat ive methods for calculating credit
scores, and assessing t he adequacy of (minimal) wages and bene ts. If developed i n a
cross-country compara ble way, reference budgets cou ld in addition help to contextualis e
EU social indicators of income pover ty and nancial stress , to monitor the adequacy of
minimum income protect ion schemes in a range of countr ies and to facilitate cross-
nat ional lear nin g in or der to desig n mor e e ec tive minimum income suppor t measures.
Unfortunately, until now existing reference budgets have not been di rectly comparable
across countries due to substantia l di erences in objec tives and methodology (Storms et
al.2014). It is, therefore, di cu lt to use them in a European context.
In the European project I mPRovE, researchers in si x European countries
(Belgium, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Spain) examined t he feasibility of
developing cross-country comparable reference budgets on the basis of a common
theoretical a nd methodological f ramework. In a previous paper, we have outlined
our own theoretica l and methodological f ramework for developing cross-countr y
comparable reference budgets (Storms et al.2013). To the best of our k nowledge, this
is the rst attempt to construct comparable reference budgets i n a single concerted
e ort in Europe. I n this paper, we present the rst of our results regard ing the content,
level and comparability of reference budgets developed usi ng this fra mework, for
people living in relatively la rge cities in the six a forementioned countries (Antwerp,
Athens, Barcelona, Budapes t, Helsinki and Mila n). e selected countries vary g reatly
in GDP per capita and the size a nd structure of their welfa re state. We discuss in some
To continue reading
Request your trial