DIGITAL ARCHIPELAGO

‘Transferencias públicas en la Unión Europea: ¿Quiénes son los principales beneficiarios?’

Economy and Society

European and International Studies

2004

The weight of the public sector is greater in the European Union than in the United States. Some authors have concluded from this fact that EU countries are more generous to their poorer citizens.

DIRECTOR

Mª Dolores Collado Vindel

RESEARCH TEAM

Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaeche Cortajarena

COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS

Universidad de Alicante

DESCRIPTION

The present project questions this assumption, on the grounds that in many EU countries the main beneficiaries of government transfers are the middle classes, and not the least advantaged groups. This hypothesis will be tested using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), which provides comparable microeconomic data on income, living conditions, housing, health and employment across all EU Member States since the year 1994.

The ECHP will be used to identify the recipients of government transfers by their individual or family income. The results can then be compared from one EU country to another, and against equivalent information for the United States.