MICRESA: Micro-level analysis of the European social agenda: combating poverty and social exclusion through changes in social and fiscal policy

One of the key common social objectives within the European Union is the reduction of poverty and social exclusion. Using household micro-data and microsimulation methods, this project aims to explore the impacts of social and fiscal policies on poverty. It will also explore the effects on poverty of reforms to existing policies and the feasibility of meeting a range of possible targets for poverty reduction. The inter-relation with individual decisions, in the face of a rapidly changing socio-economic environment, is an important element in the design of social and fiscal policies. As well as the redistribution of household incomes, the project will examine the effect of policy changes on men and women separately, and on individual work incentives. The project covers all 15 Member States of the European Union and will consider the issues in each within a comparable framework and from three perspectives: (a) national, (b) comparative and (c) European.