Lessons from the past, options for the future: Reflections on insights from the ImPRovE programme
John Hills, London School of Economics
This presentation will review some of the points that have emerged from the research presented at the conference, and completed earlier in the ImPRovE programme. This research has produced insights on factors that drove changes in poverty before the economic crisis, both through policy change and through policies adjusting the levels of social security benefits from year to year; on government responses since the crisis; and on the contributions of employment changes and policy change to poverty outcomes. It has also generated lessons for the design of and constraints on social minimum systems and on the relative effectiveness of minimum wages, tax allowances, and social benefits. All of these suggest important factors that need to be taken into account in efforts to make faster progress on poverty reduction in Europe in the future.