The Welfare State and The Market Economy: The Austrian experience as a Social Market Economy (SME)

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the recent development of the welfare state and social wage in Austria. Our empirical review is concerned with the net benefits or net social wage received by the Austrian working population. Net social wage is defined as the difference between the social benefits received and taxes paid by the working class. This measurement will enable us to find out whether the working population has received a net gain (or net social wage) and whether this net gain has expanded over time. The paper offers a study of the trends of the “social wage” in France in the last decades before the Great Recession. It addresses two major questions. The first question is whether the expansion of social expenditures has posed any drag on capital accumulation and economic growth in this country. The second question is whether the increasing ideological challenges from the right and the competitive pressures of globalization have led to the retrenchment of the French welfare states in recent decades.