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A recent study "Social Investment Impact on Poverty: Empirical Evidence of the Stock, Flow and Buffer Policy Functions in Germany" by Heta Pöyliö disentangles the complexity of policy responses tackling poverty. The article published in Social Policy and Society analyses how different policy packages, joined together based on their main policy function influence individual poverty risk in the 21st century Germany.
The study applies the social investment policy function framework of stock, flows and buffers to examine if policies with similar functions work together with other functions in reducing poverty risk among the vulnerable demographic groups. Particularly focus is on the poverty risk among young women and men and single parents, who are more likely to experience poverty than other population groups. The findings demonstrate that among young people, policies with a flow function, i.e. family support, reduce individual poverty risk together with stock policies, i.e. education, in settings where social safety net buffers are weak. However, the impact is more evident among young women than men. Positively, the study also finds that all policy functions lower the poverty risk of single parents, although the family support is crucial in drawing poverty alleviating joint impacts of policies.
Pöyliö H. Social Investment Impact on Poverty: Empirical Evidence of the Stock, Flow and Buffer Policy Functions in Germany. Social Policy and Society. Published online 2026:1-16. doi:10.1017/S1474746425101309