Revisiting the globalisation-welfare state Nexus: what about the quality of the social welfare?

Abstract

A large amount of literature examines the effects of globalisation on the size of the welfare state. Unlike previous papers, this article studies globalisation’s effects on the quality of social welfare. For this purpose, we use the annual panel dataset of 169 countries from 1970 to 2018. The findings indicate that a higher level of globalisation leads to a higher quality of the welfare state. This evidence is valid when the countries are divided according to their income levels, such as low-income, middle-income, and high-income economies. In addition, these results remain robust when various sensitivity analyses are implemented, such as using different indicators of globalisation, utilising different estimation techniques, including various controls, and excluding outliers.