CSB Minimum Income Protection Indicators (CSB-MIPI)

A good deal of my research concerns the comparative analysis of minimum income protection schemes, in particular with regard to their structure and generosity. In order to facilitate this research, I have contributed to two rounds of data collection on the level of minimum income protection in European countries, and I developed a categorisation of minimum income schemes targeted at people in old age in Europe.

Origin of CSB-MIPI

Before I started my PhD research, colleagues at the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy (University of Antwerp), inspired by Jonathan Bradshaw’s research, organised a first round of data collection on minimum income schemes in 15 European countries between 1992 and 2001. They started from so-called ‘model family simulations’ (we now call them ‘hypothetical household simulations’): given some characteristics of a hypothetical household, taxes and benefits are simulated. Unfortunately, most of this research has been published only in Dutch.

Cantillon, B., Van Mechelen, N., Marx, I. and Van den Bosch, K. (2004), De evolutie van de bodembescherming in 15 Europese landen van 1992 tot 2001 [the evolution of minimum income protection in 15 European countries from 1992 till 2001], CSB bericht 2004:02, Antwerp: Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.

Establishment and first expansion of CSB-MIPI

Some years later, I joined this team for expanding the data collection to 27 countries (including the ‘new’ EU member states), and updating the data to 2009. At the same time, we tried to make procedures more streamlined to improve comparability, and I worked in particular on the assumptions with regard to housing as well as the representativeness of the selected household types. The data were collected in CSB-MIPI, the CSB Minimum Income Protection Indicators Database.

A description of the database and the data collection and validation can be found in: Van Mechelen, N., Marchal, S., Goedemé, T., Marx, I. and Cantillon, B. (2011), The CSB-Minimum Income Protection Indicators Database (CSB-MIPI), CSB Working Paper 11/05, Antwerp: Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.

Somewhat later, we updated the data to 2012, using the same methodological setup. For accessing the data, please contact dr. Sarah Marchal.

The latest development: CSB-MIPI based on HHoT/EUROMOD

More recently, we changed the approach from working primarily with a network of national experts to primarily making use of EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union. This was facilitated by the development of a new add-on in EUROMOD, the Hypothetical Household Tool (HHoT), which I coordinated with Holly Sutherland (University of Essex). We updated the database to 2017.

We present the data, additional adaptions to EUROMOD and their validation in the following paper:

Marchal, S., Siöland, L. and Goedemé, T. (2019) Using HHoT to generate minimum income protection indicators, EUROMOD Working Paper EM 4/19, Colchester: University of Essex. (slightly improved version compared to CSB Working Paper 18/20).

The data can be downloaded here: Marchal, S., L. Siöland and T. Goedemé (2018). Minimum income protection in Europe. The MIPI-HHoT dataset, Version 1.0.1. Zenodo. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.2533898.

Other papers on minimum income protection

  • Penne, T. and Goedemé, T. (2020), Can low-income households afford a healthy diet? Insufficient income as a driver of food insecurity in Europe. Food Policy. [doi] [Working paper version].
  • Cantillon, B., Goedemé, T. and Hills, J. (eds.) (2019), Decent incomes for all. Improving policies in Europe, New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Goedemé, T. and Marchal, S. (2016), ‘Exploring a blind spot in comparative pension reform research: Long-term trends in non-contributory pensions in Europe‘, International Journal of Social Welfare, 25: 2, 161-175. [DOI, archived version]
  • Goedemé, T. (2013), ‘Minimum Income Protection for Europe’s Elderly: What and How Much has been Guaranteed during the 2000s?‘, in I. Marx and K. Nelson (eds.), Minimum Income Protection in Flux, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • [with quite some extensions in my PhD thesis]
  • Vandenbroucke, F., Cantillon, B., Van Mechelen, N., Goedemé, T. and Van Lancker, A. (2013), ‘The EU and Minimum Income Protection: Clarifying the Policy Conundrum‘, in I. Marx and K. Nelson (eds.), Minimum Income Protection in Flux, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Goedemé, T., De Vil, G., Van Mechelen, N., Fasquelle, N., & Bogaerts, K. (2012). Hoogte en adequaatheid van de Belgische sociale minima in de periode 2000-2011. In J. Vranken, L. Willy, G. Anneline & C. Catherine (Eds.), Armoede in België. Jaarboek 2012 (pp. 215-238). Leuven / Den Haag: Acco. [available in Dutch and French]
  • Goedemé, T. and Van Lancker, W. (2009), ‘A Universal Basic Pension for Europe’s Elderly: Options and Pitfalls‘, Basic Income Studies, 4: 1, Article 5, 26p. [DOI]