POST EUROPE 2020 STRATEGY: ANALYSIS OF POVERTY DYNAMICS AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE EU

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, İktisat, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2023

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: Risolat Tashmatova

Danışman: Feride Gönel

Özet:

The EU 2020 strategy had many ambitious goals including the fight against poverty and social exclusion. The plan was to reduce the number of people who live at risk of poverty and social exclusion by 20 million. This number was 120 million people in 2011 but by 2020 it decreased to 109 million people, meaning only 50% of the target was accomplished (EAPN, 2020). The central topic of the research is the analysis of the causal relationship between poverty and income inequality in the EU during the period 2005-2020 together with a comprehensive review of the poverty profile and policies. Even though inequality is central to the analysis, other variables were added to measure their effect on poverty rates. These variables include expenditure on social protection, GDP per capita, unemployment, and government effectiveness. The results indicate that the poverty eradication efforts went through an improvement. The Europe 2020 strategy puts more emphasis on poverty and social exclusion compared to the Lisbon strategy. However, such a reassessment did not result in a substantial decrease in poverty at the EU level. The most vulnerable groups were people aged 16-24, unemployed, females, single adults with dependent children, people with low levels of educational attainment, inhabitants of rural areas, and people who live in rented accommodation. The panel regression revealed that income inequality had the largest impact on AROPE. Other variables besides government effectiveness also show a significant impact on AROPE but to a lesser extent.