Vulnerability and Multiple Deprivation Perspectives on Social Exclusion in Europe: A Latent Class Analysis

In this paper we address issues relating to vulnerability to social exclusion and levels of social exclusion in Europe. We do this by applying latent class models to data from the European Community Household Panel or thirteen countries. This approach allows us to distinguish between vulnerability to social exclusion and exposure to multiple deprivation at a particular point in time. The results of our analysis confirm that in every country it is possible to distinguish between a vulnerable and non vulnerable class in each country. Association between income poverty, life-style deprivation and subjective economic strain is accounted for by allocating individuals to the categories of this latent variable. The size of the vulnerable class varies across country in line with expectations derived from welfare regime theory. Between class differentiation is weakest in the social democratic countries but otherwise the pattern of differentiation is remarkable similar. The key discriminatory factor is life-style deprivation, followed by income and economic strain. Social class and employment status are powerful predictors of latent class membership in al countries but the strength of these relationships varies across welfare regime. Individual biography and life events are also related to vulnerability to social exclusion. However, there is no evidence that they account for any significant part of the socio-economic structuring of and no support is found for the hypothesis that social exclusion has come to transcend class boundaries and become a matter of individual biography. However, the extent of socio-economic structuring does vary substantially across welfare regimes. Levels of social exclusion in the sense of current exposure to multiple deprivation also vary systematically by welfare regime and social class. Taking both vulnerability to social exclusion and levels of social exclusion into account suggest that care should be exercised in moving from evidence on the dynamic nature of poverty and social exclusion to arguments relating to the superiority of selective over universal social polices.