Estimating the at risk of poverty rate before and after social transfers at provincial level in Italy

Abstract

Considering the local areas where citizens live is fundamental to investigate deprivation and social exclusion, particularly in a period of increasing financial difficulties and reduction of public funding. In this work we estimate the at risk of poverty rate of Italian households before and after social transfers at provincial level. To obtain these estimates we use data coming from the EU-SILC 2013 survey and data coming from the population census and administrative archives in a small area estimation framework, since the design of EU-SILC survey does not allow for reliable direct estimation at provincial level. Our results, besides indicating the essential role of social transfers in the reduction of the at risk of poverty rate, allow a sub-national analysis of the phenomenon of interest that would be lost by using traditional statistical techniques.