# Wim Van Lancker (@wimvanlancker.be)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/wimvanlancker.be
Headline: Professor social policy - Poverty expert

## About

Professor social work and social policy, KU Leuven. I study social policy, poverty, and how to address these issues more effectively.

## Career

- **Associate Professor in social work and social policy at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven** (Oct 2022 - Present)
  Full-time
  Associate Professor in social work and social policy, affiliated with the Research group on Social, Political and Population Change (ReSPOND)
- **Program Director Sociology and Social work and social policy at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven** (Aug 2025 - Present)
- **Member at Jonge Academie** (Mar 2023 - Present)
- **Associate Professor at ReSPOND Research Group - KU Leuven** (Oct 2022 - Present)
- **Assistant Professor at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven** (Sep 2017 - Oct 2022)
  Full-time
  Assistant Professor (tenure track) in Social Work and Social Policy, affiliated with the Centre for Sociological Research (CESO).
- **Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at University of Antwerp** (Oct 2014 - Sep 2019)
  Antwerp Area, BE
  Postdoctoral Fellowship affiliated with the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy.
- **Visiting Fellow at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)** (Oct 2017 - Dec 2017)
  London, GB
  Visiting Fellowship based at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE).
- **Guest Lecturer at University of Antwerp** (Oct 2015 - Sep 2017)
  Teaching undergrad course 'Samenleving, feiten en problemen', introducing actual topics relating to the Belgian and European welfare states, and a Master course 'State-of-the-art: Labour' in which actual labour market issues and trends are discussed from a socio-economic point of view.
- **Post-doctoral research fellow at University of Antwerp** (May 2014 - Sep 2014)
- **PhD Student at University of Antwerp** (Oct 2008 - May 2014)
  The historical objective of welfare states is to protect the population against “social risks”: sickness, unemployment, disability et cetera. However, society has changed and “new” social risks (NSR) emerged, such as the inability to reconcile paid work and care work in the household, becoming a single parent or being low skilled. Welfare states adapted to these new risks and subsequently developed new social policies. This research project contributes to the ongoing sociological debate about the changed nature of social risks and aims to assess the distributional effects of social policies covering NSRs, with the work-family conflict as a case in point. Since inequality is on the rise again, the overarching research question concerns the role of NSR policies in the redistributive capacity of welfare states. Based on the dominant theories of welfare state redistribution, several hypotheses are tested for three welfare states (Belgium/Flanders, Sweden and The Netherlands) in a European comparative perspective. The results are expected to shed light on coverage of NSRs in different institutional settings (do they promote more equality or do they work in the opposite direction?) and to fuel the theoretical debate on the mechanisms underlying welfare state redistribution.
- **Visiting researcher at Stockholm University** (May 2010 - Jun 2010)
  At the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), the main aim of the visit was the collection (and investigation) of appropriate data on the use of childcare services and parental leave by different social groups in the Swedish society, and on the government expenditures regarding those policies (including information on fiscal policy and tax deductions).
- **Research fellow at University of Antwerp** (Jul 2008 - Oct 2008)
  Research about family-work combination and unemployment of low-skilled women in the Belgian welfare state.
- **Scientific Collaborator at Universiteit Antwerpen** (Sep 2007 - Dec 2007)
  I worked on temporary basis as a researcher for the Yearbook on Poverty and Social Exclusion.
- **Editor at Schamper** (Oct 2003 - May 2007)

## Skills

### Other
- Analysis
- Lecturing
- Policy Analysis
- Politics
- Quantitative Research
- Research
- Social Policy
- Social Sciences
- Sociology
- SPSS

## Publications

- Algorithmic Decision‐Making and Harmonization in Multi‐Level Governance Welfare Practices: Empirical Evidence From Belgium — Social Inclusion (Sep 2025) https://doi.org/10.17645/si.10289
- The families in households typology: searching for families in social surveys — Community, Work & Family (Jul 2025) https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2025.2531827
- Contextualising Income-Based Poverty Measurement: The Needs-Based Cost of Childhood Disability in Belgium — Social Indicators Research (Mar 2025) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-025-03570-5
- The family as provider of intergenerational support during COVID-19: a study into the mental health consequences for 65+ Europeans — Front. Public Health (Oct 2024) https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1418472
- The association between non-parental childcare intensity and parental mental health across Europe — Scandinavian Journal of Public Health (Mar 2024) https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948221137964
- How much does immigration contribute to national poverty rates? A decomposition analysis for 17 European welfare states — Socio-Economic Review (Mar 2024) https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae012
- Revisiting the role of social work in the substantial realization of social rights in local welfare systems: Transforming and changing the rules of the institutional game? — Social Policy & Administration (Mar 2024) https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.13022
- Labour supply reactions to basic income: Insights from 60 years of research — Socio-Economic Review (Feb 2024) https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad076
- Policy feedback and income targeting in the welfare state — Journal of Social Policy (Nov 2023) https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279423000569
- Basic Income in Belgium survey: experimental data on citizens’ attitudes toward a variety of basic income policies — Data in Brief (Aug 2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2023.109376
- Including the Most Excluded? A Qualitative Study on the Address Registration for People Experiencing Homelessness in Belgium — Administration & Society (Apr 2023) https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231162538
- Childhood disadvantage: pathways for future research — The Lancet Public Health (Apr 2023) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00047-6/fulltext
- They Can’t All Be Stars: The Matthew Effect, Cumulative Status Bias, and Status Persistence in NBA All-Star Elections — American Sociological Review (Mar 2023) https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224231159139
- Making Parental Leave Policies Work for Single Mothers: Lessons from Europe — The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Nov 2022) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162221134445
- Understanding the immigrant-native gap in childcare use: An empirical exploration for 21 European countries — Acta Sociologica (May 2022) https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00016993221102506
- Family policies’ long-term effects on poverty: a comparative analysis of single and partnered mothers — Journal of European Social Policy (Jan 2022) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09589287211035690
- Distance Learning and School-Related Stress Among Belgian Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Frontiers in Education (Jan 2022) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.836123/full
- Researching the Non-Take up of social rights: a social work perspective — British Journal of Social Work (Jun 2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab117
- Measuring the Generosity of Parental Leave Policies — Social Inclusion (Jun 2021) https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/3943/0
- What a social investment ‘litmus test’must address: A response to Plavgo and Hemerijck — Journal of European Social Policy (May 2021) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09589287211012974
- The Relationship between Familizing and Individualizing Policies and Mental Health in Parents in Europe — Social Sciences (Feb 2021) https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/2/55
- Letter to the Editor of Public Health in response to ‘Religiousness and depressive symptoms in Europeans: findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe' — Public Health (Sep 2020) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350620301323?via%3Dihub
- COVID-19, school closures, and child poverty: a social crisis in the making — The Lancet Public Health (Apr 2020) https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanpub/PIIS2468-2667(20)30084-0.pdf
- A Critical Analysis of Disability Policy and Practice in Flanders: Towards Differentiated Manifestations of Interdependency — Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities (Feb 2020) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jppi.12336
- An Intersectional Approach towards Parental Employment in Families with a Child with a Disability: The Case of Belgium — Work, Employment and Society (Jan 2020) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017019872648
- Trends in Women’s Employment and Poverty Rates in OECD Countries: A Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition — The Italian Economic Journal (Oct 2019) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40797-019-00115-x
- Is religiousness really helpful to reduce depressive symptoms at old age? A longitudinal study — PLoS ONE (Jul 2019) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218557
- The measurement of targeting design in complex welfare states: a proposal and empirical applications — Social Indicators Research (2019) https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s11205-018-1995-z?author_access_token=rtLLjd4wox7TbCAeRhUmjve4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY7mMmY0M13OHquzNRwUsKdl4SqWCP7FOVPO1Sd0x5e-_K-z-W4MhBW3ZL4sTQDIU_xtxuNxc-1oJV_DLYSegNaNZmLk2cehfZ5NaRjEqZjCaA%3D%3D
- Non‐take up of the supplemental child benefit for children with a disability in Belgium: A mixed‐method approach — Social Policy & Administration (2019) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/spol.12457?author_access_token=ALRdierj2B3B4qNjRcDxAota6bR2k8jH0KrdpFOxC65KIiO9_NyFXaheT7Yn9x8BGKDGaor0rjN-7JUSSgqAd4lxntsy4ufPvEv6Egun0luyebxKjtoqxjTJiRyA2J_V
- The Matthew effect in childcare use: a matter of policies or preferences? — Journal of European Public Policy (Mar 2018) https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2017.1401108
- Reducing Inequality in Childcare Service Use across European Countries: What (if any) Is the Role of Social Spending? — Social Policy & Administration (May 2017) http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/spol.12311
- Explaining patterns of inequality in childcare service use across 31 developed economies: a welfare state perspective — International Journal of Comparative Sociology (2016) http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020715216674252
- Horizontal and Vertical Equity Objectives of Child Benefit Systems: An Empirical Assessment for European Countries — Social Indicators Research (2015) http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-015-1080-9
- The impact of child benefits on single mother poverty: Exploring the role of targeting in 15 European countries — International Journal of Social Welfare (Nov 2014) http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12140
- Universalism under siege? Exploring the association between targeting, child benefits and child poverty across 26 countries — Social Science Research (Nov 2014) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.11.012
- Three Shortcomings of the Social Investment Perspective — Social Policy and Society (Aug 2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1474746413000080
- Putting the child-centred investment strategy to the test: Evidence for EU27 — European Journal of Social Security (Mar 2013) http://www.ejss.eu/
- Solidarity and reciprocity in the social investment state: What can be learned from the case of Flemish school allowances and truancy? — Journal of Social Policy (Jul 2012) http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0047279412000359
- Who benefits? The social distribution of subsidized childcare in Sweden and Flanders — Acta Sociologica (May 2012) http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1177/0001699311433428
- The European World of Temporary Employment: Gendered and Poor? — European Societies (Feb 2012) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616696.2011.638082
- The unequal benefits of activation: an analysis of the social distribution of family policy among families with young children — Journal of European Social Policy (Dec 2011) http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1177/0958928711418853
- A Universal Basic Pension for Europe's Elderly: Options and Pitfalls — Basic Income Studies (2009) http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.2202/1932-0183.1119

## Education

- **University of Antwerp** — Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) (2010 - 2014)
  Dissertation: "To whose benefit? An empirical and comparative investigation into the (un)intended consequences of family policy in the social investment state"   Starting from the concept of the Matthew effect and inspired by the work of Robert Merton, this dissertation explores the intended as well as unintended consequences of family policy measures in the social investment state. Two overarching research questions are addressed in an empirical and comparative way: 1) Who benefits from government investment in current family policy measures?; and 2) What are the consequences of government investment in family policy? The analyses show that the middle and higher-incomes benefit more from government investment for childcare services and parental leave schemes than low-income families. This is likely to counteract the social investment objective of mitigating inequalities in early life. A focus on income protection should be an indispensable part of any successful investment strategy.
- **Sint-Lodewijkscollege, Brugge** (1994 - 2000)

## Awards

- Haec Olimprijs 2023 (Jan 2023)
- 2015 biennial Prize of the Research Council (Nov 2015)

## Links

- GitHub: https://github.com/wvlancker/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wimvanlancker
- Website: http://www.wimvanlancker.be