Poverty relief in the mixed economy: Theory of and evidence for the (changing) role of public and nonprofit organizations in coping with income poverty

Austrian National Bank

The most recent European programme to combat poverty and social exclusion is based on four aims: one is to engage all public and private actors in poverty relief. However, private actors - most notably non-profit organisations - do already supply a large part of poverty relief measures. Nonetheless, many supranational bodies, like the World Bank, insist that non-profits should increase their engagement in poverty relief – not least to allow the public sector to retreat even more from providing welfare.
The project attempts to examines the mixed economy fo welfare - and shifts thereof - first at a theoretical level. It then invetsigates empirically whether the welfare mix in poverty relief has been changing in Austria and its capital city Vienna.