Welfare State Regimes Research Articles

Defamilization typology re-examined: Re-measuring the economic independence of women in welfare states

Defamilization typologies are a product of the feminist critique of the modelling of welfare states. A growing literature has employed the notion of defamilization and incorporated the gender dimension into the comparative examination of welfare state regimes. The purpose of this study is to further refine the defamilization typology by addressing the existing limitations and providing better operationalization. Based on previous work, this study uses cluster analysis to classify the same countries, but uses different measures and more up-to-date data. The article begins with a conceptual delineation of defamilization to reveal its important aspects in order to achieve better operationalization. A cluster analysis is then conducted, with preliminary efforts to validate the cluster solution. The findings suggest a fourfold typology according to the varying degree of defamilization. Implications for future research will also be discussed.

Do welfare regimes influence the association between disability and self-perceived health? A multilevel analysis of 57 countries

Disability is usually associated with poorer self-rated health. However, as many people with disabilities do not consider themselves unhealthy, the association may not be as straightforward as it appears. This study examines whether the relationship between disability and self-rated health is dependent on a country's welfare regime. Welfare regimes can play a significant role in securing the needs of disabled people and lessening their social exclusion. However, welfare regimes also label disabled people accordingly, before they become entitled to specific provisions and services. Being given a low status label and being dependent on welfare provisions might trigger a negative self-evaluation of health. Using data from 57 countries of the World Health Survey of 2002–2004, the multilevel regression analyses show that people with a disability tend to rate their health worse than people without any disability. Moreover, the strength of this negative association varies significantly across countries and is affected by a country's welfare regime. The association is the strongest in the various Welfare State regimes (mostly European countries) and the weakest in Informal-Security regimes (Latin-American and Asian countries) and in Insecurity regimes (African countries). Disabled people living in Welfare States regimes tend to rate their health worse than people in other regimes. These findings confirm that welfare regimes play a role in shaping the health perception of disabled people and that processes of labeling may result in unintended and negative consequences of welfare programs. Research on the nexus between disability and self-rated health that neglects this macro-social context of welfare regimes may lead to undifferentiated and even incorrect conclusions.

Part-Time Wage Penalties for Women in Prime Age

Using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for the year 2009, the authors evaluate how vertical and horizontal job segregation explains the differential between full-time and part-time pay for prime-age women in four European countries: Austria, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The selected countries are representative of different welfare state regimes, labor market regulations, and extents and forms of part-time employment. Full-time hourly wages exceed part-time hourly wages, especially in market-oriented economies, such as Poland and the United Kingdom. Results using the Neuman-Oaxaca decomposition methods show that most of the full-time–part-time wage gap is driven by job segregation, especially its vertical dimension. Vertical segregation explains an especially large part of the pay gap in Poland and the United Kingdom, where, more than elsewhere, part-timers are concentrated in low-skilled occupations and the wage disparities across occupations are quite large.

Eldercare services in Sweden and the United States - comparative perspective and examples of best practice

The aim of this paper is to discuss the characteristics of the eldercare sector in two considerably different welfare state regimes - Sweden and the United States. In the face of dynamic demographic changes and the ageing of the populations, sectors of care undergo transformation and face new challenges. This article compares and contrasts the American and Swedish eldercare sector, but also brings two examples of best practice selected from the experience of each country. The Programme of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly is a successful exception in a fragmented and disintegrated landscape of long-term care in the United States. Extended state support for informal carers manifests a new Swedish approach to family care. The paper leads to a conclusion that most of the developed countries need to undertake different actions to prevent a long-term care crisis and prepare the societies for an unprecedented growth of the "oldest old" population.(original abstract)

Measuring state de-familialism: Contesting post-socialist exceptionalism

This article offers a methodology to reveal the latent constructs that underlie policies on parental leave and childcare services. It is constructed to uncover state assumptions about the social organization of childcare and gender roles in a country-comparative perspective. Legislation is central to this analysis, and combinations of policy components take centre stage. An index of state de-familialism is proposed and its analytical potential tested on eight post-socialist European Union (EU) states. Grounded in Leitner’s conceptualization of “varieties of familialism”, it gauges three policy types: (1) Slovenian and Lithuanian supported de-familialism incentivizes women’s continuous employment and active fatherhood; (2) explicit familialism in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia supports familial childcare and reinforces gendered parenting; and (3) implicit familialism in Poland, Slovakia and Latvia leaves parents without public support. These groups share core characteristics with developed welfare state regimes. This methodology has the potential to discredit claims of post-socialist exceptionalism and allows researchers to test new hypotheses.

Scars that will not Disappear: Long-term Associations between Early and Later life Unemployment under Different Welfare Regimes

AbstractExploiting retrospective data from the SHARELIFE project, we investigate long-term associations between early and later life unemployment spells of at least six months in a sample of more than 13,000 men and women from eleven European countries. Our findings provide, first, evidence for significant differences in the life-course pattern of unemployment occurrence between welfare state regimes. Second, childhood conditions are shown to bear significant associations with the odds of experiencing periods of unemployment throughout one's employment career. Third, and finally, our analysis confirms previous research in that we provide clear evidence for long-term scarring effects, showing that they are indeed permanent ones, as we observe them even among older workers close to retirement. The paper concludes with a discussion of perspectives for future research.

Public attitudes toward government responsibility for child care: The impact of individual characteristics and welfare regimes

This study examines the extent to which individual's attitudes toward government responsibility for child care provisions are influenced by personal characteristics as well as the social contexts in which these attitudes are formed. The analysis draws on data from a random sample of 24, 240 respondents in 12 of the countries included in the European Social Survey (ESS) round 4 (2008–2009). The analytic framework focuses on individual-level factors related to self-interest, perceptions of the current care available and egalitarian ideology as well as the societal context reflected in the alternative institutional arrangements for social welfare represented by the countries clustered into different welfare state regimes. The findings indicate that among the individual level variables, although factors related to self interest were significant, egalitarian ideology had the relatively strongest impact on the respondents' level of support for government provision of child care. At the institutional level the introduction of welfare regimes increased the proportion of explained variance well beyond that accounted for by individual level factors.

Welfare through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics and Social Protection in Japan

What were the key elements of the ‘Japanese welfare state model’ of the 1980s and 1990s? How can we understand the high economic growth and relatively equitable distribution in Japan despite comparatively low investments in social welfare by the Japanese state? What changes in partisan competition, political ideas and welfare state protections have contributed to policy shifts away from that model towards the increasingly precarious economic realities of contemporary times? In a society that largely assumed a middle-class reality for most families, how can we make sense of the shocking emergence of the Haken village? These are some of the pressing ideational, institutional and political questions that Mari Miura’s book answers with both theoretically and empirically supported analysis and insight. Making a significant contribution to the literature on comparative welfare state regimes, Japanese politics and political parties, as well as to broader analyses of the intersections of the gendered division of labour and political economy, Miura’s Welfare through Work is recommended reading for both undergraduate students and more advanced scholars of Japan and welfare states.

Changes in socioeconomic determinants of health: comparing the effect of social and economic indicators through European welfare state regimes

Aim This study is aimed at comparing the effect of different measures of socioeconomic status on self-rated health throughout European welfare state regimes during the period 2002–2008, in order to study how diverse socioeconomic inequalities can vary our health over time. Subjects and methods This study uses the European Social Survey to compare the impact of three specific socioeconomic measures (income, education and occupational status) on selfrated health. Results The main finding to be highlighted is that the importance of education-related inequalities surpasses differences in income and occupational status, especially in southern and eastern countries. The relationship between income and selfrated health is stronger in liberal and social-democratic regimes, where labour market regulation is characterized by its flexibility and high liberalization. The impact of occupational status is moderate among liberal, social democratic and conservative regimes, but lower in southern and eastern ones. Conclusion These findings support the existence of a contextual effect among welfare states that varies the impact of social and economic indicators in self-rated health over time.

The Welfare State in Egypt, 1995-2005: A Comparative Approach

This article applies the typology of welfare state regimes developed by Esping-Andersen in 1990 to the welfare state in Egypt as an example of developing countries. The study surveys the relations between the state, the market, and society from 1995 to 2005, a period characterized by a shift towards a market-oriented economy, challenging the historical legacy of the state’s social role. The methodology employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis while examining the characteristics of seven main welfare schemes and social safety nets in Egypt. The findings suggest that the Egyptian current welfare state can be best described as “conservative/informal,” where social benefits are tied to employment in the formal sector, leading to the family, religious institutions, and clientelistic networks taking on important roles to meet the social needs of the larger informal sector. In addition, the study proposes amendments to the Esping-Andersen typology in order to better understand the welfare programs of developing countries. Mismanagement, quality considerations, the gap between stated goals and implementation, disparities created by gender and urbanization differences, and the role of informal sector should be systematically considered when analyzing welfare regimes in general, and those of developing countries in particular.

Full- and part-time work: gender and welfare-type differences in European working conditions, job satisfaction, health status, and psychosocial issues

The aim of this study was to analyze the differences between full- and part-time employment (FTE and PTE) in terms of working conditions, on the one hand, and job satisfaction, health status, and work-related psychosocial problems according to gender and welfare state regime, on the other hand, and to analyze the role of working conditions in the association between PTE and FTE. This cross-sectional study was based on a sample of 7921 men and 8220 women from the European Working Conditions Survey aged 16-64 years, who were employed part-time (5-19 or 20-30 hours per week) or full-time (31-40 hours/week). Multiple logistic regression models were fitted separately for each gender and welfare state regime. PTE is associated with poorer working conditions than FTE for all national welfare types. Among women, only those in southern European countries experienced low job satisfaction [odds ratio after adjustment (OR adj) for sociodemographic variables, OR adj1.73, and 1.66, for those working 20-30 and 5-19 hours/week, respectively; reference group: FTE workers], but this association disappeared after further adjustment for working conditions. Low job satisfaction and poorer health status was more common among PTE men from continental (low job satisfaction, OR adj1.80 and 3.61, for 20-30 and 5-19 working hours/week, respectively), and southern European (OR adj, 2.98, for 5-19 working hours/week) countries. PTE tended to be associated with fewer psychosocial problems among women, but with more psychosocial problems among men in continental Europe and those those engaged in "mini-jobs" in southern European welfare regimes. The association between FTE and PTE and job satisfaction, health status, and psychosocial problems is partly driven by working conditions and differs between gender and welfare regime. This highlights the importance of promoting effective measures to ensure equal treatment between FTE and PTE workers and the role of the social norms that form part of these different welfare states regimes.

A balancing act? Work–life balance, health and well-being in European welfare states

Recent analyses have shown that adverse psychosocial working conditions, such as job strain and effort-reward imbalance, vary by country and welfare state regimes. Another work-related factor with potential impact on health is a poor work-life balance. The aims of this study are to determine the association between a poor work-life balance and poor health across a variety of European countries and to explore the variation of work-life balance between European countries. Data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey were used with 24,096 employees in 27 European countries. Work-life balance is measured with a question on the fit between working hours and family or social commitments. The WHO-5 well-being index and self-rated general health are used as health indicators. Logistic multilevel models were calculated to assess the association between work-life balance and health indicators and to explore the between-country variation of a poor work-life balance. Employees reporting a poor work-life balance reported more health problems (Poor well-being: OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.83-2.31; Poor self-rated health: OR = 2.00, 95% CI = 1.84-2.17). The associations were very similar for men and women. A considerable part of the between-country variation of work-life balance is explained by working hours, working time regulations and welfare state regimes. The best overall work-life balance is reported by Scandinavian men and women. This study provides some evidence on the public health impact of a poor work-life balance and that working time regulations and welfare state characteristics can influence the work-life balance of employees.

The Great Recession and Welfare State Reform: Is Retrenchment Really the Only Game Left in Town?

AbstractBy 2010, when the Greek sovereign debt crisis changed into an existential crisis of the euro, all developed democracies entered a phase in which they had to consolidate their budgets, typically implying a politics of austerity. The scholarly literature, as well as the popular press, suggests that – consequently – welfare retrenchment and cost containment became the only games left in town. In this article, we study the welfare state reform measures taken between 2010 and 2012 in four countries characteristic of mature welfare state regimes (liberal, UK; conservative, Germany; social democratic, Denmark; and hybrid, the Netherlands) to examine empirically whether austerity has indeed become the only item left on the policy menu. Our analysis reveals that retrenchment features prominently on the agenda everywhere, but nowhere by itself. While compensation for income loss is rare since 2010, this still happens. More unexpectedly, reforms in line with a social investment agenda (like expansion of child care or active labour market policies) are still being pursued in all our four cases.

Double Trouble: US Low-Wage and Low-Income Workers, 1979–2011

There is research on low-wage earners and on low-income adults, yet little that looks specifically at workers who are both. Changes in antipoverty programs and job structure in the United States suggest a rise in this group of workers, but not necessarily an accompanying change in the set of social protections that might cover them. We track the share of low-wage and low-income (LW/LI) workers and their access to a subset of employer benefits and antipoverty programs from 1979–2011. We explore changes by worker's gender and family status based on feminist labor market and welfare state regime research that argues jobs and social protection programs are shaped by a heteronormative male-breadwinner model. We find increased shares of LW/LI workers; that LW/LI workers are least likely to receive antipoverty supports and employer benefits; and evidence for a male-breadwinner model in US social protection programs.

It’s About Time! Gender, Parenthood, and Household Divisions of Labor Under Different Welfare Regimes

Having young children generally intensifies gendered patterns of time use. During the 1990s, this pattern changed in several Nordic countries, where welfare state arrangements support gender equality and work–family balance more comprehensively than elsewhere. We investigate the impact of parenthood on men’s and women’s time use across welfare state regimes, performing ordinary least squares regressions using data from the Multinational Time Use Study for Germany, Italy, and Canada ( N = 57,367 weekdays/53,292 weekends). We find convergence of men’s and women’s time use over the 1990s but uncover no strong evidence of the Nordic pattern emerging elsewhere. Instead, in countries with less comprehensive family policies and less support for gender equality, parenthood continued to reinforce traditional patterns of behavior on weekdays. There is evidence of change on weekends in Germany and Canada, where fathers became more involved domestically, but not in Italy, suggesting certain welfare state regimes may preserve gendered behavior more than others.

Housing Policy Regime in Lithuania: towards liberalization and marketization

This paper reviews housing policy development in Lithuania in the light of previous literature which reinterprets Esping-Andersen’s work on welfare regimes and adopts it to study housing policy. It seeks to highlight the major features of the Lithuanian housing policy. The findings of this paper reveal that the Lithuanian housing regime exhibits many features which are common under the liberal one. Most significant of these are low de-commodification for those who have to buy or rent a home for the market price, increasing stratification based on income and the dominant position of the market in housing production, allocation and price determination. However, a detailed examination of the Lithuanian housing policy reveals that the housing policy system, despite having many features similar to the liberal one, has been operating in different social and economic settings as a result of unique historical experience of the communist housing policy (massive production of low quality apartment blocks during the communist era, which currently need substantial renovation) and consequently drastic changes in the housing field since 1990s (massive privatization of the housing stock and decentralization of the housing management system). The Lithuanian housing policy regime could be characterized as a regime with the higher owner-occupation compared to other welfare state regimes, but the lower economic power of the owners to take care of their property maintenance, repair and renovation.

The association between life course socioeconomic position and life satisfaction in different welfare states: European comparative study of individuals in early old age

Background: whether socioeconomic position over the life course influences the wellbeing of older people similarly in different societies is not known.Objective: to investigate the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction among individuals in early old age and the influence of the welfare state regime on the associations.Design: comparative study using data from Wave 2 and SHARELIFE, the retrospective Wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), collected during 2006–07 and 2008–09, respectively.Setting: thirteen European countries representing four welfare regimes (Southern, Scandinavian, Post-communist and Bismarckian).Subjects: a total of 17,697 individuals aged 50–75 years.Methods: slope indices of inequality (SIIs) were calculated for the association between life course socioeconomic position (measured by the number of books in childhood, education level and current wealth) and life satisfaction. Single level linear regression models stratified by welfare regime and multilevel regression models, containing interaction terms between socioeconomic position and welfare regime type, were calculated.Results: socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction were present in all welfare regimes. Educational inequalities in life satisfaction were narrowest in Scandinavian and Bismarckian regimes among both genders. Post-communist and Southern countries experienced both lower life satisfaction and larger socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction, using most measures of socioeconomic position. Current wealth was associated with large inequalities in life satisfaction across all regimes.Conclusions: Scandinavian and Bismarckian countries exhibited narrower socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction. This suggests that more generous welfare states help to produce a more equitable distribution of wellbeing among older people.

LABOUR MIGRATION FLOWS: EU8+2 VS EU-15

The aim of this paper is to determine whether, and to what extent, the migrations from the EU-8+2 to the EU-15 were motivated by differences in earnings and productivity and to what extent by differences in welfare state generosity during the period of the transitional arrangements. On these grounds, a distinction emerges between “favourable” and “unfavourable” migrations on one hand and immigration net winners and losers on the other hand. The obtained results represent an empirical ground for the discussion on the thesis according to which more generous welfare state regimes will be more susceptible to the influx of unfavourable immigrants during the upcoming period of the free movement of labour, while the less generous welfare state regimes will be a magnet for the favourable immigration influx within the EU-27.

Work, health, and welfare: the association between working conditions, welfare states, and self-reported general health in Europe.

This article is the first to examine the association between self-reported general health and a wide range of working conditions at the European level and by type of welfare state regime. Data for 21,705 men and women ages 16 to 60 from 27 European countries were obtained from the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey. The influence of individual-level sociodemographic, physical, and psychosocial working conditions and of the organization of work were assessed in multilevel logistic regression analyses, with additional stratification by welfare state regime type (Anglo-Saxon, Bismarckian, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and Southern). At the European level, we found that "not good" general health was more likely to be reported by workers more exposed to hazardous working conditions. Most notably, tiring working positions, job strain, and temporary job contracts were strongly associated with a higher likelihood of reporting "not good" health. Analysis by welfare state regime found that only tiring or painful working conditions were consistently associated with worse self-reported health in all regimes. There was no evidence that the Scandinavian welfare regime protected against the adverse health effects of poor working conditions. The article concludes by examining the implications for comparative occupational health research.

The Effect of Globalization on the Distribution of Taxes and Social Expenditures in Europe: Do Welfare State Regimes Matter?

This paper estimates the effect of globalization on the implicit tax rates (ITRs) on capital income, labor income, and consumption, and the share of social protection expenditures in total public expenditures in Western and Eastern Europe. It tests the coexistence of efficiency and compensation effects of globalization on the expenditure and the revenue sides of government budgets. In Western Europe, globalization leads to an increase in social expenditures; however, these expenditures are to an increasing extent financed by taxes on labor. There are important differences between the welfare states. In the conservative regimes, both social expenditures and taxes on labor increase due to globalization. In the social-democratic regimes social expenditures are not affected by globalization, but the ITR on labor increases, whereas ITRs on capital and consumption decrease as a result of globalization. In the liberal regimes, the ITR on labor is rising, while social expenditures are declining. In the southern welfare regime globalization does not have any significant effects on the distribution of taxes or social spending. In Eastern Europe, in the Baltic states globalization leads to a decrease in social spending, whereas in the other Central and Eastern European New Member States (postcommunist European regimes) there is an upward convergence in social spending due to globalization. The ITRs on consumption decrease due to globalization in the postcommunist European regimes, whereas in the Baltic states there is no robust significant effect of globalization on taxes.