The impact of minimum income guarantee schemes in central and eastern Europe

Abstract

The minimum income guarantee (MIG) constitutes as a policy response to the new social risks of poverty and social exclusion, providing a last resort benefit that ought to secure subsistence while maintaining incentives to work.1 The emphasis on social inclusion through measures of labour force activation resonates with the general turn towards using social policies in order to manage labour rather than correct market failures (Carmel, 2005; Offe, 1982; Standing, 2003), and to develop MIG schemes aimed at enabling individuals to integrate on the labour market (Gough, 2001; Kazepov, 2005; Pena-Casas, 2005; Sainsbury and Morissens, 2002; Standing, 2003).