Mobility and persistence of in-work poverty

Cross-sectional indicators usually show levels of poverty and in-work poverty (IWP) that have not decreased or which have even increased slightly in recent decades in Europe. Also, differences between countries with respect to relative poverty levels are stable to a large extent.  However, since mobility is usually high in these situations, cross-sectional indicators provide only limited information. Most poverty episodes are short-lasting while many of the people who have come out of poverty return relatively soon to it. As a consequence, the percentage of persons who experience a period of poverty at some time during their lives is much higher than the percentage of persons affected by poverty in a certain year. 

The dynamic analysis of poverty is particularly interesting for the study of IWP for several reasons. First, to be able to respond to the question of whether employment is a sure way of avoiding the risk of poverty it is essential to know the extent to which situations that combine employment and relative poverty are temporary or persistent. Second, there is the question of whether differences in IWP levels between countries respond to different mobility patterns and if those patterns can be linked to specific institutional contexts.

The aim of this paper is to offer a dynamic analysis of IWP based on data of the EU-SILC (2005-2007) for a group of four European countries (Spain, France, Poland and the United Kingdom) representative of some welfare regime variants.