Type Of Welfare Regime Research Articles

A problem of gendered injustice? Objective and subjective poverty among older women and men across European welfare regimes

Using European Social Survey data, this article studies the prevalence of objective and subjective poverty among older women and men (60+ years) in 21 European countries. Objective poverty refers to whether one’s disposable income falls below the poverty line, whereas subjective poverty relates to the capacity to make ends meet. It analyzes gender differences in these two dimensions of poverty and the role of gender as an explanation to these phenomena while controlling for other individual-level variables as well as the role of welfare state regimes. The results show that older women are more exposed to objective poverty than men, and that female gender remains strongly and positively correlated with this kind of poverty even when controlling for other variables. They also show that other individual-level variables, such as partnership, paid work and education curbs objective poverty, while the type of welfare regime does not matter. As to subjective poverty, on the other hand, there is no significant association with female gender, nor with the type of welfare regime, while individual-level variables such as subjective health, partnership and paid work are negatively correlated with this dimension of poverty. Subjective poverty is somewhat more influenced by contextual factors than objective poverty although the type of welfare state regime is not significantly associated with subjective or objective poverty.

Implications of the global financial crisis (2008-2009) for equity in the welfare State. Comparative análisis between the four types of welfare regimes

The aim of this research is to compare the compatibility between fiscal policy and the normative principles of equity in the different welfare regimes, in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis (2008-2009). In this research, we propose a comprehensive two-part approach: tax equity and expenditure equity. We argue that the relationship between crisis and transformation of the welfare state in the fiscal policy dimension is neither direct nor automatic, and that different types of welfare regimes opted for divergent policy responses to try to mitigate the negative effects of the market

Inequalities in Resources for Preschool-Age Children by Parental Education: Evidence from Six Advanced Industrialized Countries

This paper provides new evidence on inequalities in resources for children age 3–4 by parental education using harmonized data from six advanced industrialized countries—United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Japan—that represent different social welfare regime types. We analyze inequalities in two types of resources for young children—family income, and center-based child care—applying two alternative measures of parental education—highest parental education, and maternal education. We hypothesize that inequalities in resources by parental education will be less pronounced in countries where social policies are designed to be more equalizing. The results provide partial support for this hypothesis: the influence of parental education on resources for children does vary by the social policy context, although not in all cases. We also find that the measurement of parental education matters: income disparities are smaller under a maternal-only definition whereas child care disparities are larger. Moreover, the degree of divergence between the two sets of estimates differs across countries. We provide some of the first systematic evidence about how resources for young children vary depending on parents’ education and the extent to which such inequalities are buffered by social policies. We find that while early inequalities are a fact of life in all six countries, the extent of those inequalities varies considerably. Moreover, the results suggest that social policy plays a role in moderating the influence of parental education on resources for children.

A progressive dilemma? Investigating cross-country variations in family-immigration policies through the lens of welfare-state regimes

ABSTRACT The notion of a ‘progressive dilemma’, according to which there is an intrinsic tension between comprehensive welfare states and large-scale immigration, has figured prominently in scholarly as well as political debates over the last decade. As one of the main categories of entry in most affluent democracies, family immigration stands out as a particularly interesting test case in this context. Building on this notion of a progressive dilemma, as well as on other theorizing on the welfare-migration nexus, this study examines whether the restrictive effects of certain risk factors on family-immigration policies, such as growing immigration and rising unemployment, have been conditioned by the type of welfare regime. The empirical analysis herein finds that increasing immigration and higher unemployment have triggered policy restrictions in Basic Security welfare states, but that the influence of these factors on policy changes is less clear in State Corporatist and Universal welfare states. Contrary to what the idea of the progressive dilemma would lead us to expect, Basic Security welfare states with weaker universal and redistributive features have been more likely to sharpen restrictions on the admission of family migrants when under pressure from increasing immigration and rising unemployment.

The Religious Foundations of Welfare, Social Inclusion, and Anti‐Immigrant Attitudes in Europe

AbstractThis paper unites disparate literature to test the influence of religious belonging and behavior characteristics along with secular welfare boundaries on anti‐immigrant attitudes. We suggest that welfare states varied in their religious foundations during the transition from religious‐based solidarity to modern state‐based solidarity and formulate a novel analytical framework to hypothesize effects across individuals and welfare regime types. Using eight waves of the European Social Survey (2002–16), we find that religious effects are strongest in welfare states with the most religious foundations, the Southern European welfare states, and weak in the universalist welfare states, which lacked historical state‐church tensions. Other welfare types show a mix of religious effects, with some challenging expectations. Furthermore, Christian majority membership is often associated with heightened anti‐immigrant attitudes, most consistently in contrast to the non‐Christian minority. For welfare‐based forms of inclusion, we find consistent institutional trust effects and two competing logics for secular boundaries: a propensity for welfare chauvinism and a culture of inclusion.

The clandestine welfare: The role of illicit actors in the provision of social protection in Latin America

AbstractThere has been an increasing interest in exploring the different types of welfare regimes in middle- and low-income countries. However, most of the studies so far seem to neglect the importance of illicit groups as welfare providers. Illicit groups can be so powerful in many of these societies, that they can create extensive social safety nets embedded in parallel governance orders. Considering their importance as fundamental actors in the Global South, it is required to acknowledge their role as welfare deliverers as a missing piece in the literature. Hence I discuss the nature of what I call “clandestine welfare” and three specific forms of social protection provided by illicit groups: direct, involuntary, and forced. In the first form, the illicit groups provide directly to society by delivering goods or services that the formal state fails to provide. In the second, the illicit group’s activities have involuntary but positive spill-overs over society in terms of welfare. In the last one, the illicit groups use violence to force other social actors to provide social protection. By bringing illustrative examples from Latin America, I aim to show that the action of illicit groups represents a tangible source of welfare for a large segment of the population that goes beyond charity.

The interaction of gender regimes and long-term care provision across Europe: Ambivalent intersections of gender, class and ethnicity

The analysis of gender regimes in Western welfare capitalism proposed by Sylvia Walby (2009. Globalization & inequalities: Complexity and contested modernities. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.) has triggered a debate on the fruitfulness of the concept for analyzing social change in the full range of Global North countries. Among others, the distinction between modern neoliberal and social democratic regimes, implying better ground for gender equality in the latter, not least due to public provision of care services, has raised criticism. The article contributes to this debate by analyzing long-term care provision in three European countries, representing different gender and welfare regime types. Results show that the respective patterns, characterized by migrantization of formal and informal care, do not follow the assumed path-dependent regime logics in all respects. They motivate rethinking the gender regime approach with regard to the juxtaposition of social democratic and neoliberal regimes (while omitting conservative and familialistic regime features) and suggest extending the national focus to transnational practices and institutions.

Social risks of family carers in the context of welfare state policies

Objective: To determine how European care policies for older people differ in terms of their potential social risks to family carers, as well as the extent to which these differences can be explained by different types of welfare and care regime. Background: It is often assumed that welfare state support for family care entails high social risks to the carer, such as loss of employment income and social security rights. This paper challenges these assumptions and argues that care policies that generously support family carers might also alleviate some of the social risks related to family care. Method: This paper introduces an innovative approach to systematically measuring the generosity of policies that support family carers, and it theorises how these policies connect to family carers' social risks. It then applies this approach to a comparative study of five European welfare states based on analyses of these countries’ care policy documents, standardised policy reports by national experts and data from comparative social policy databases. Results: The findings reveal large cross-national differences in care policy design, which is only in some cases able to significantly mitigate social risks for family carers. Furthermore, these cross-national differences only partly correspond with assumptions based on welfare and care regime affiliation according to classic typologies. Conclusion: The paper sheds new light on the ways in which welfare states design their policies towards family carers, and on the extent to which these policies are associated with social risks.

The normalisation of welfare chauvinism

The normalisation of welfare chauvinism

The Covid-19 pandemic economic impacts and government responses across welfare regimes

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted lives across all countries, and had severe negative impacts on the global economy, with a massive loss of production and employment, and an increase in national debts. Given that the economic impacts and government responses are structurally rooted in a country’s type of welfare regime, this study examines the economic impacts and government responses in selected OECD countries as differentiated by their welfare regimes using both descriptive and statistical methods. Our descriptive findings indicate that GDP drop and higher unemployment have been less severe in the social democratic countries, and the rise in government debt has been more dramatic in the liberal countries. We also find some degree of convergence in social spending across the welfare regimes at least as long as the pandemic persists. Using panel regression analysis, we find that more testing and higher vaccination are positively associated with GDP growth. On the other hand, containment measures and emergency economic support are negatively associated with GDP growth. Moreover, the descriptive finding that the adverse impact of the pandemic on GDP has been more pronounced in liberal and conservative countries compared to the social democratic countries is corroborated by our statistical analysis.

Digital welfare state and problem arising: an exploration and future research agenda

PurposeThe penetration of technology and the strengthening of evidence-based policies have paved the way for the automated delivery of social services. This study aims to discuss the inherent risks of this automatization, particularly those associated with the discrimination, exclusion and inequality problem, which the authors package under the theoretical umbrella of a digital welfare state (DWS).Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual article reviews the literature on the welfare DWS, with an empirical focus on the recent experience of selected countries from India, Kenya and Sweden. These countries reflect three different types of welfare regimes but are connected by the same digital social risk. The authors’ exploration also includes questions about what this DWS has in common with and how it differs from the previous era. This article illustrates that there has been a very similar trajectory in regards to the development of the DWS and the associated risks in the examined countries.FindingsDWS has triggered new social risks (e.g. discrimination, exclusion and inequality in welfare access) that are a result of data breaches experienced by citizens. Further, vulnerable groups in the digital age should be viewed not only as those who lack access to welfare services, such as education, health and employment, but also as those without internet access, without digital skills and excluded from the DWS system.Originality/valueThe article calls for the development of scholarly research into the DWS in particular and the contemporary one in general. The authors also predict that a critical aspect of the future regime typology rests in the ability to mobilize resources to address contemporary digital risks, as every country is equally vulnerable to them. Overall, this article can be considered to be one of the initial works that focus on cross-national comparison across different meta-welfare regimes.

Is the stereotype of welfare recipients associated with type of welfare state regime? A cross‐national meta‐regression of the stereotype content model

AbstractThe association of societal‐level structural factors with stereotypes and stigma can be examined using the stereotype content model (SCM). The main aim of the current study was to review and synthesize all available research data of SCM dimensions of Warmth and Competence perceptions of welfare recipients, and compare the ratings in different types of social welfare regimes (Nordic, Conservative, and Liberal). To do this, we reviewed all published literature using the SCM methodology to assess stereotypes of welfare recipients and perfomed a cross‐national meta‐regression of 17 datasets (total N = 1797) drawn from six countries representing three types of welfare regimes. In each of the studies, participants were asked how others in their country viewed welfare recipients on the dimensions of warmth and competence. We predicted and found support for the hypothesis that countries with a Nordic welfare regime have a warmer cultural stereotype of welfare recipients than countries with a Liberal or Conservative regime. However, the expected association between Liberal welfare regime and incompetence stereotypes was not found. Supplementary analyses showed that the type of welfare regime better explained country differences in welfare stereotypes than country differences in income inequality. This study demonstrates how stereotypes of warmth and competence vary across welfare regimes, adding to knowledge about how societal‐level factors are related to cultural stereotypes.

Poor-quality employment and health: How a welfare regime typology with a gender lens Illuminates a different work-health relationship for men and women

In the growing literature on employment quality and health, poor quality of employment is generally associated with poor health. However, this association may not be uniform for men and women if unpaid caregiving labor is taken into consideration. How paid and unpaid labor is performed varies across societies because of differences in both state support for families and labor market penalties for women. Applying a gender lens to a welfare regime typology, we investigated the relationship between poor-quality employment and poor health for men and women. For each of five welfare regime types, we hypothesized if men or women would be more strongly affected by poor-quality employment based on the regime's family support policies and labor practices. Our analysis of 18 countries using the 2015 European and American Working Conditions Surveys data largely supported our hypotheses. In countries that support traditional gender roles with high state expenditure and have labor markets that penalize women, the association between poor-quality employment and health was stronger for men. The association was stronger for women in countries that rely on women to provide unpaid caregiving without substantial state support. In countries with apparently gender-neutral expectations for both paid work and unpaid caregiving work, no difference was found between men and women in the association of poor-quality employment with poor health. We discuss the importance of institutional perspectives to understand work as a gendered experience that impacts health. We suggest more comprehensive welfare regime typologies that recognize women both as caregivers and workers. Expanding the scope of research on work and health to include this integrated view of life could make a stride toward gender health equity.

Do taxes and transfers reduce gender income inequality? Evidence from eight European welfare states

We examine how taxes and transfers affect the incomes of men and women. Using microsimulation and intra-household income splitting rules, we measure the differences in the level and composition of individual disposable income by gender in eight European countries covering various welfare regime types. We quantify the extent to which taxes and transfers can counterbalance the gender gap in earnings, as well as which policy instruments contribute most to reducing the gender income gap. We find that with the exception of old-age public pensions, all taxes and transfers significantly reduce gender income inequality but cannot compensate for high gender earnings gaps. Our findings suggest that gender income equality is more likely to be achieved by promoting the universal/dual breadwinner model, whereby women's labour force participation and wages are on a par with men. To achieve this, men will likely need to work less and care more.

Locating Central and Eastern European emerging welfare regimes: is the youth welfare citizenship typology useful?

PurposeThe authors’ aim is to establish the variance of youth welfare citizenship regimes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and to revisit the applicability of the regime approach to the emerging welfare regimes (EWRs).Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis follows the descriptive case study strategy aiming to discover diversity of youth welfare citizenship patterns. The case selection is made within the CEE country group, which includes countries in Central Europe, the Baltics, Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe, all sharing the communist past. The subdivision of these countries in reference to the welfare states can be made via the European Union (EU) membership based on the assumption that EU social policy frameworks and recommendations have an important effect on domestic policies. We included countries which are in the EU, i.e., with a similar political and economic transition path. There were three waves of accession to the EU in CEE countries. In the first wave (2004), all the Baltic countries, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia joined. In the second wave (2007), Romania and Bulgaria joined. Finally, Croatia joined the EU in 2013. Altogether 11 CEE countries are the EU members today, the remaining CEE countries are non-EU members and thus are excluded from the current research. Those countries which are part of the EU share similarities in social and economic reforms during the pre-accession period and after in order to reach a comparatively similar system with other member states. So, in terms of casing strategy these six countries can be named as emerging welfare regimes (EWRs) evolving transformations across different public policy areas. Handpicking of six countries out of 11 relies on the assumption that the Anglo-Saxon welfare system characteristics are more evident in the Baltic countries (Aidukaite, 2019; Aidukaite et al., 2020; Ainsaar et al., 2020; Rajevska and Rajevska, 2020) and Slovenia, while in Bulgaria and Croatia certain outcomes reflect the Bismarckian principles of social security (Hrast and Rakar, 2020; Stoilova and Krasteva, 2020; Dobrotić, 2020). This brings important variety into our analysis logic. Last but not least, we juxtapose six CEE EWR countries under analysis with six mature welfare regime countries representing different welfare regime types. Those mature welfare regime countries (Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, UK) are not an explicit object of the study but help to put analysed CEE EWR cases into larger context and thus, reflect upon theoretical claims of the welfare regime literature.FindingsThe authors can confirm that the EWR countries can be rather well explained by the welfare citizenship typology and complement the existing knowledge on youth welfare regime typology clusters in the Western Europe. Estonia is clustered close to the Nordic countries, whereas Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia and Slovenia are close to the Bismarckian welfare model despite rather flexible, non-restricted educational path, universal child and student support. Bulgaria is an outlier; however, it is clustered together with mature Mediterranean welfare regimes. Former intact welfare regime clusters are becoming more diverse. The authors’ findings confirm that there is no any intact cluster of the “post-communist” welfare regime and Eastern European countries are today “on move”.Research limitations/implicationsAltogether 11 CEE countries are the EU members today. The remaining CEE countries are non-EU members and thus are excluded from the current research. Those countries which are part of the EU share similarities in social and economic reforms during the pre-accession period and after in order to reach a comparatively similar system with other member states. At least one CEE country was chosen based on existing theoretical knowledge on the welfare regime typology (Anglo Saxon, Beveridgean, Bismarckian) for the Post-communist country groups.Practical implicationsIn the social citizenship dimension we dropped social assistance schemes and tax-relief indices and included poverty risk and housing measures. Youth poverty together with housing showed rather clear distinction between familialized and individualised countries and thus, made the typology stronger. In the economic dimension the preliminary picture was much fuzzier, mainly due to the comprehensive education in the region and intervention of the EU in domestic ALMPs (and VET) reforms. The authors added a new indicator (pro-youth orientation of ALMP) in order better to capture youth-sensitivity of policy.Social implicationsThe authors included a working poverty measure (in-work poverty rate) in order to reflect labour market insecurity as an increasing concern. Yet, the analysis results were still mixed and new indicators did not help locating the regime types.Originality/valueIn order to improve the validity of the youth welfare citizenship regime economic dimension, Chevalier's (2020) model may also be worth revisiting. The authors argue that this dichotomy is not sufficient, because inclusive type can have orientation towards general skills or occupational skills (i.e. monitored or enabling citizenship clusters), which is currently ignored. Chevalier (2020) furthermore associates inclusive economic citizenship with “coordinated market economies” (referring to Hall and Soskice, 2001), which seems hardly hold validity in the Nordic and at least some CEE countries.

The resistance of the four European worlds of welfare from the birth of the euro

ABSTRACT This article compares parliamentary preferences on welfare expenditure in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom between 1996 and 2013. The analysis is focused on the relationship between the type of welfare regime and the programmatic offer on the volume of social spending. Two indexes were calculated: social spending and social retrenchment. Upon emergence from the recession, an increasingly homogeneous conception is detected of social policies as being subordinated to economic policies; convergence has occurred within each of the worlds of welfare, maintaining the variation among them found prior to the Crisis.

Farklı Refah Devleti Modellerinde Eğitim Sisteminin Okuldan İş Piyasasına Geçişteki Performansı: Danimarka, Fransa, İspanya, Yunanistan ve Türkiye

School systems and their links with the labor market play an important role in students’ success or failure and, consequently, facilitate (or not) their later access to the labor market. This article presents a comparison of the effects of different welfare regimes on school to work transitions. By drawing on an intense desk study and secondary analysis, the article examines five countries with different welfare regime types and reveals how they shape schooling and school to work transitions, particularly for disadvantaged groups. These countries are Denmark (universalistic regime), France (employment- centered regime), Spain, Greece, and Turkey (sub-protective regime). The article also addresses potential policy transfers in the findings.

Mental Well-being Among Workers: A Cross-national Analysis of Job Insecurity Impact on the Workforce

Drawing on 2011 and 2016 European Quality of Life Survey data from eight European countries, this paper considers the importance of subjective indicators of employment conditions in impacting mental well-being. Among employment conditions, job insecurity has been discussed as having a negative impact on mental well-being by enhancing the worker’s sense of unpredictability. The idea of losing one’s job brings with it the fear of an uncertain or unclear future and the sense of lack of agency—i.e. feeling powerless with respect to the risk of becoming unemployed. Thus, we investigate two dimensions of job insecurity, namely ‘cognitive job insecurity’ and ‘labour market insecurity’. Our dependent variable is mental health well-being, measured using the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5), which is a self-reported health scale validated by several studies and internationally adopted for measuring psychological well-being. We apply a fixed-effects model and use a set of individual control variables to obtain parameter estimates. Moreover, to control for country-level heterogeneity, two macro-level variables are considered: the type of welfare regime and employment protection. The novelty of this research lies in disentangling the concept of precariousness from the dichotomy of open-ended/non-open-ended contract and in including in the analysis subjective categories such as self-perceived job insecurity. The findings of our study suggest that self-perceived job insecurity is negatively related to mental well-being for both permanent and temporary workers, making this stressor an important feature in predicting the emergence of psychological distress (i.e. feelings of anxiety or depression) among the workforce.

The Effect of Income and Wealth on Subjective Well-Being in the Context of Different Welfare State Regimes

In this article, we study the causal effects of two economic standing measures on the subjective well-being of the elderly, as well as the moderating effects of distinct welfare regimes on these relationships. For our analysis, we classify countries into the following welfare regimes: Conservative, Social-democratic, Mediterranean, and Post-socialist. We address the income endogeneity issue by utilizing the panel structure of our data and instrumenting for income. Our findings show that the significance and strength of the effects of both economic standing measures on life satisfaction are moderated by the institutional context or welfare regime type, which we support by providing several robustness checks. Finally, we make a deeper inquiry into the heterogeneity of the countries classified. After controlling for endogeneity, our results indicate that the relationship between economic standing and life satisfaction is mostly driven by individual countries, which suggests caution when studying the effect of economic standing on subjective well-being.

Life-Course Circumstances and Frailty in Old Age Within Different European Welfare Regimes: A Longitudinal Study With SHARE.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess whether cumulative disadvantage in childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions influence the risk of frailty in old age and whether welfare regimes influence these associations.MethodData from 23,358 participants aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal SHARE survey were used. Frailty was operationalized according to Fried’s phenotype as presenting either weakness, shrinking, exhaustion, slowness, or low activity. Confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to analyze associations of childhood misfortune and life-course socioeconomic conditions with frailty.ResultsChildhood misfortune and poor adult-life socioeconomic conditions increased the odds of (pre-)frailty at older age. With aging, differences narrowed between categories of adverse childhood experiences (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime) and adverse childhood health experiences (driven by Eastern European welfare regime), but increased between categories of occupational position (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime).DiscussionThese findings suggest that childhood misfortune is linked to frailty in old age. Such a disadvantaged start in life does not seem to be compensated by a person’s life-course socioeconomic trajectory, though certain types of welfare regimes affected this relationship. Apart from main occupational position, our findings do not support the cumulative dis/advantage theory, but rather show narrowing differences.