Poverty transitions and trigger events across EU groups of countries: evidence from EU-SILC

The dynamics of income poverty in European countries have been extensively analysed using the ECHP dataset, run from 1994 to 2001 in the ‘old’ fifteen member states. Using EUSILC longitudinal data, the purpose of this paper is to update this type of analysis to 2006 by including the ‘new’ EU member states and focusing on poverty mobility. The demographic and economic events associated with households falling into or exiting poverty are analysed through both descriptive analyses and logit regressions. The analysis compares six groups of countries clustered according to welfare regime typologies. The results reveal that most poverty transitions are associated with economic events, but the entry rates after the occurrence of demographic events are also crucial. With respect to poverty entry rates, differences among groups of countries are consistent with their welfare regime typologies, but a less clear ranking among them emerges when considering poverty exit rates and when regressions are estimated while controlling for household characteristics.