Utilizing the Survey of Adult Skills from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the OECD database, this study investigates the role of gender inequality and public social spending in the gender gap in Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) risk across various age cohorts. The research identifies a…

All OECD governments want to give parents more choice in their work and family decisions. This book looks at the different ways in which governments support families. It seeks to provide answers to questions like: Is spending on family benefits going up, and how does it vary by the age of the child? Has the crisis affected public support for…

One of the challenges raised by proactive employment policies centres on redressing inequalities that are not solely of an economic nature, as others may also be added of a social and ethnic nature as well as personal, cultural and educational aspects. This article analyses the situation in which groups at risk of social exclusion find themselves…

In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, placing emphasis on individuals to take responsibility for separating themselves from governmental dependence by becoming economically self-sufficient through employment. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored the experiences…

Records show that school enrollment for girls is still lagging behind in some areas in the Asia and Pacific region, which poses challenge for the region to achieve Education for All (EFA) by 2015. And girls' labor in the Asia and Pacific region continues to constitute a major obstacle towards gender parity in education, another EFA target. Girls'…

The main causes of social exclusion in Albania were studied along with ways in which vocational education and training could help combat it. The study identified target groups, analyzed existing policies and the role of education and training for target groups, and pilot tested projects to support the identified groups. The following policy…

The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Changing poverty and changing antipoverty policies…