There has been a rapid global expansion of academic and policy attention focusing on in-work poverty, illustrating that across the world there are increasing numbers of people who could be described as the ?working poor?. Taking a global and multi-disciplinary perspective, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current research at the intersection between work and poverty. Authoritative contributions from leading researchers in the field provide comprehensive coverage of conceptual and measurement issues, causal drivers and mechanisms, key empirical findings, policy issues and debates. The Handbook is unique in offering perspectives from a wide range of regions and countries, stretching beyond developed countries. It also does justice to the paradigmatic diversity in approaches to in-work poverty, offering a wealth of variety in disciplinary approaches. Academically rigorous, yet clear and concise, this Handbook will benefit students and scholars of public policy, politics, social policy and development studies. It will also prove accessible for policy analysts and journalists looking to explore the issue from new angles. Contributors include: P. Barbieri, A. Barrientos, K.M. Blankenship, D. Brady, E. Crettaz, G. Cutuli, J.C. Feres, N.-S. Fritsch, M. Giesselmann, J. Horemans, A. Horton, L. Kenworthy, M. Leibbrandt, A. Levanon, D.T. Lichter, K. Lilenstein, H. Lohmann, J.-d. Lue, B. Maitre, L. Maldonado, L.C. Maldonado, S. Marchal, I. Marx, R. Maurizio, R. Nieuwenhuis, B. Nolan, S. Oselin, S. Ponthieux, L. Pradella, J. Prieto, E. Saburov, W. Salverda, S.R. Sanders, S. Scherer, D. Seikel, D. Spannagel, B.C. Thiede, V. Unnikrishnan, W. Van Lancker, L. Vandecasteele, G. Verbist, R. Verwiebe, C.T. Whelan, J. Wills, I. Woolard, C.-Y. Yeh

There has been a rapid global expansion of academic and policy attention focusing on in-work poverty, illustrating that across the world there are increasing numbers of people who could be described as the ?working poor?. Taking a global and multi-disciplinary perspective, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current research at the intersection between work and poverty. Authoritative contributions from leading researchers in the field provide comprehensive coverage of conceptual and measurement issues, causal drivers and mechanisms, key empirical findings, policy issues and debates. The Handbook is unique in offering perspectives from a wide range of regions and countries, stretching beyond developed countries. It also does justice to the paradigmatic diversity in approaches to in-work poverty, offering a wealth of variety in disciplinary approaches. Academically rigorous, yet clear and concise, this Handbook will benefit students and scholars of public policy, politics, social policy and development studies. It will also prove accessible for policy analysts and journalists looking to explore the issue from new angles. Contributors include: P. Barbieri, A. Barrientos, K.M. Blankenship, D. Brady, E. Crettaz, G. Cutuli, J.C. Feres, N.-S. Fritsch, M. Giesselmann, J. Horemans, A. Horton, L. Kenworthy, M. Leibbrandt, A. Levanon, D.T. Lichter, K. Lilenstein, H. Lohmann, J.-d. Lue, B. Maitre, L. Maldonado, L.C. Maldonado, S. Marchal, I. Marx, R. Maurizio, R. Nieuwenhuis, B. Nolan, S. Oselin, S. Ponthieux, L. Pradella, J. Prieto, E. Saburov, W. Salverda, S.R. Sanders, S. Scherer, D. Seikel, D. Spannagel, B.C. Thiede, V. Unnikrishnan, W. Van Lancker, L. Vandecasteele, G. Verbist, R. Verwiebe, C.T. Whelan, J. Wills, I. Woolard, C.-Y. Yeh

There has been a remarkable upsurge of debate about increasing inequalities and their societal implications, reinforced by the economic crisis but bubbling to the surface before it. This has been seen in popular discourse, media coverage, political debate, and research in the social sciences. The central questions addressed by this book, and the major research project GINI on which it is based, are: - Have inequalities in income, wealth and education increased over the past 30 years or so across the rich countries, and if so why? - What are the social, cultural and political impacts of increasing inequalities in income, wealth and education? - What are the implications for policy and for the future development of welfare states? In seeking to answer these questions, this book adopts an interdisciplinary approach that draws on economics, sociology, and political science, and applies this approach to learning from the experiences over the last three decades of European countries together with the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea. It combines comparative research with lessons from specific country experiences, and highlights the challenges in seeking to adequately assess the factors underpinning increasing inequalities and in identify the channels through which these may impact on key social and political outcomes, as well as the importance of framing inequality trends and impacts in the institutional and policy context of the country in question.