1. EAPN Seminar: 2010 and beyond – the legacy we want!
Getting Progress on an EU without poverty and social exclusion
Using EU instruments to support a fairer distribution of wealth - Promoting better indicators for progress / beyond GDP
Håkan Nyman
European Commission
DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Unit E1: Demography and social analysis
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

2. Development of new indicators
Outline
Outline
Context
Existing instruments
Development of new indicators
Indicators within the Open Method of Coordination (OMC)
Beyond GDP
Household wealth
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

3. Aggregate wealth consist of both income and assets
Context
Context
Aggregate wealth consist of both income and assets
Fairly good picture of the distribution of income in the EU due to the Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)
Less is known about the distribution of household wealth
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

4. Main tools for monitoring the Social Situation in the EU
Existing instruments
Main tools for monitoring the Social Situation in
the EU
The Social Situation Reports
The Open Method of Coordination (OMC)
Indicators
Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion
Other tools
The Employment Committee
Employment in Europe Reports
Cohesion Reports
Regional dimension
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

5. The Social Situation Reports
Existing instruments
The Social Situation Reports
Joint DG EMPL and Eurostat annual publication
Part 1: in-depth analyses on a specific theme:
Social dimensions of geographical mobility
Demographic challenges
Intergenerational transmission of disadvantages
Social participation
Part 2: statistical portraits on various social dimensions including key indicators
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

6. Income inequality, relative poverty, standard of living
Existing instruments
The OMC
14 overarching indicators (+11 context indicators) and of the three strands:
Social inclusion
Income inequality, relative poverty, standard of living
Regional cohesion
Labour market, Educational outcome
Material deprivation (recently agreed)
Housing (currently being discussed)
Unmet need for care
Child-well being (to be developed)
Pensions
Social protection systems
Pension adequacy
Health and long-term care
Health outcome, inequality and access
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

7. Development of better indicators
Beyond GDP
Economic indicators such as GDP were never designed to be comprehensive measures of well-being.
Need to be complemented with other dimensions and
distributional aspects
Adequate indicators are needed to address global challenges such as climate change, poverty, resource depletion and health.
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

8. Development of better indicators
Distribution of household wealth:
important information on household’s financial situation
source of support during periods of low income (old age)
a security for uncertainties in life
The distribution of wealth may have as great an impact on social cohesion as income inequality
Increasing wealth gap may lead to a divided society and may not be sustainable in the long run
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

9. Development of better indicators
Distribution of household wealth
Data and research (1)
Luxemburg Wealth Study (LWS)
Harmonised national data on household level
(AT, CY, FI, DE, IT, SE, UK + Canada, Norway and US)
Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
Research under the 6th and 7th FP
Wave 1: AT, BE, DK, FR, DE, EL, IT, NL, ES, SE and Switzerland. Wave 2: + CZ, IE, PL
Aim to include all EU countries (FI, HU, PT and SL are scheduled to participate)
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

10. Development of better indicators
Distribution of household wealth
Data and research (2)
The Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS)
household-level data on household finances and consumption
The HFCS will cover the following household characteristics at micro level:
demographics
real and financial assets
liabilities
consumption and saving
income and employment
future pension entitlements, intergenerational transfers and gifts
risk attitudes
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

11. Development of better indicators
Distribution of household wealth
Data and research (3)
Demographic change and Housing Wealth (DEMHOW)
Research under the 7th FP
investigate how the composition of wealth has changed with respect to changes in population, housing systems, state pension arrangements, and financial institutions.
investigate how attitudes toward the acquisition of housing assets and their use  in old age are changing, particularly given that fewer people have children.
identify past and future developments in financial markets, particularly in relation to equity release products
identify past and future developments in national and EU public policies in relation to the growth of home ownership and the use of housing equity in old age.
identify the characteristics of pension systems based on housing assets
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit

12. Development of better indicators
Conclusions
New and better EU indicators are being developed
But the work is moving slowly
Comparative data
How to define the indicators
3-Dec-18
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities ─ Unit