Does Social Policy Matter? Poverty Cycles in OECD Countries

The purpose of this paper is twofold, partly exploratory; to determine the degree to which Rowntree's poverty cycles are still apparent among the most advanced industrial nations, and partly analytical; to examine how successful different sociopolitical strategies have been in eliminating poverty over the life-cycle. The paper seeks to make a contribution in relation to earlier studies by both examining changes within singular countries and by comparing trends cross-nationally provisions

The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and Poverty in the Western Countries

The debates on how to reduce poverty and inequality have focused on two controversial questions. One is whether social policies should be targeted to low- income groups or universal; another whether benefits should be equal for all or earnings-related. Traditional arguments in favor of targeting and flat-rate benefits, focusing on the distribution of the money actually transferred, have neglected three policy-relevant considerations: 1. The size of redistributive budgets is not fixed but reflects the structure of welfare state institutions. 2. there tends to be a tradeoff between the degree of low-income targeting and the size of redistributive budgets. 3. Outcomes of market-based distribution are often even more unequal than those of earnings-related social insurance programs. We argue that social insurance institutions are of central importance for redistributive outcomes. using new data bases, our comparative analyses of the effects of different institutional types of welfare states on poverty and inequality indicate that institutional differences lead to unexpected outcomes and generate the paradox of redistribution: The more we target benefits at the poor and the more concerned we are with creating equality via equal public transfers to all, the less likely we are to reduce poverty and inequality

Models of Pensions and Income Inequality: A Comparative Analysis

This paper studies if and how welfare state differences in old-age pensions affect various aspects of income inequality among the elderly in nine LIS countries

The Social Investment Welfare State in Europe, 1990s and 2000s: Economic Ideas and Social Policies

Since the late 1990s, new ideas and strategies concerning the role and shape of the Welfare State have been formulated. All these analyses and policy developments point towards a similar policy logic based on ‘social investment’. The aim of this paper is to map out the contours of this new perspective, both at the ideational level and in terms of the policies implemented throughout Europe. It also aims at assessing the achievements, as well as the shortcomings, of this strategy. In doing so it provides a critical analysis of the content and coherence of the social investment ideas and policies and opens up for a discussion of whether the social investment perspective can provide adequate responses to challenges such as population ageing, the impact of the economic crisis and environmental issues

Introduction:What future for social investment?

In a period of deep crisis and with classical neo-liberal solutions for both the economy and the welfare state having seemingly run their course, the question arises as to what kind of new strategies should be implemented to recover stronger growth, more and better jobs and more equality and social cohesion. Thinking has to go beyond immediate responses to the current crisis to discuss the kind of strategy that should be implemented in the medium to long term in order not to reproduce the failures of the recent past. (First paragraph

Levels and targeting of social benefits in global perspective: Combatting poverty through social policy

This study investigates an old question that has re-emerged in social policy-making and in analyses of global social development: to what extent does targeting and size of social transfers matter for poverty? Using multilevel logistic regression and LIS income data for 40 middle- and high-income countries, we show that the size of transfer income has greater explanatory value for cross-country differences in poverty than the degree of targeting of transfer income. The results are remarkably robust in terms of estimated individual-level and country-level compositional and confounding factors

What Future for Social Investment ?

This report assesses the diversity feasibility, but also the relevance of the social investment strategy in Europe. What policies have been implemented in different countries, with what success? What have been the key drivers of change or impeding factors in pursuing a social investment strategy? The report also questions whether the goals defined in 2000 are still relevant, and whether the social investment strategy can help face not only traditional European problems but also new issues created by the current crisis

A European social investment strategy?

Europe seems currently to ne torn between two evils: reflation plans that sustain economic activity but increase deficits and debt, and austerity packages that are asphyxiating economic growth. Yet in the early 2000s, Europe had endorsed an alternative strategy, based on social investment, in an attempt to stimulate a new type of growth, with more and better jobs. This articlr tries to assess whether this strategy has been successfully implemented, where it got lost, and whether it could be a solution for the aftermath of the crisis (...)

Free movement and European welfare states : why child benefits for EU workers should not be exportable

The regulation of the free movement of workers in the European Union (EU), and specifically EU (migrant) workers’ access to welfare benefits in the host country, has generated considerable political conflicts within and across EU Member States in recent years. These conflicts have the potential to threaten the future political sustainability of unrestricted intra-EU labour mobility and broader processes of European integration. In this paper, we provide an institutional analysis of one specific issue that has been at the heart of these debates: the exportability of child benefits. Under the current EU rules, ‘EU workers’ (i.e. mobile EU citizens who live and work in a Member State where they do not hold national citizenship) can “export” family benefits to their children and other family members resident in the home country. A number of EU countries have demanded a change to these rules. We argue that the political conflicts about exporting child benefits are, at least in part, due to a fundamental tension between the ‘employment-based’ institutional logic that regulates EU workers’ access to child and family benefits and the ‘residence-based’ institutional logic that underpins family policy in all Member States. To reduce this tension, we make the case for changing the principles for coordinating EU workers’ access to welfare benefits, which would mean, as a consequence, that the exportability of child benefits would no longer apply. It is the country where the child lives, rather than the country where the working parent/spouse (‘breadwinner’) is employed that should bear the responsibility for providing child benefits

Shielding free movement? Reciprocity in welfare institutions and opposition to EU labour immigration

Public attitudes towards the free movement of workers in the European Union vary substantially between countries and individuals. This paper adds to the small but growing research literature on this issue by analysing the role of national welfare institutions. We investigate the relationship between the degree of ‘institutional reciprocity’ in national systems of social protection and attitudes to EU labour immigration across 12 European countries. We do not find evidence of an effect of institutional reciprocity on opposition to EU labour immigration among the public at large. However, institutional reciprocity appears to matter for economically vulnerable groups. We identify an interaction effect indicating that higher degrees of institutional reciprocity in national social protection systems, and in unemployment insurance systems specifically, are associated with lower levels of opposition to EU labour immigration among unemployed people. Hence, reciprocity in welfare state institutions appears to shield free movement from opposition, at least among vulnerable groups