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Abstract: Mass immigration is transforming the politics of income redistribution in European welfare states. Some scholars argue that immigration erodes public support for redistribution, while others argue it could have the opposite effect. Until now, the literature has attempted to isolate a generic role of immigration without distinguishing between different immigration categories. This article analyzes the relationship between internal European migration and public support for income redistribution in 17 Western European countries using the European Social Survey’s seven rounds (2002–2014). It finds that some forms of internal migration, namely, migration from new Central and Eastern European countries, are positively related to Western European support for income redistribution. The study also sheds light on the crucial role of the welfare state, finding that the compensation effect is stronger in countries with higher social protection. The results support group-specific understandings of the relationship between immigration and income redistribution. In sum, the relationship varies by immigrant group and depends on the generosity of social protection.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine if and how the reclassification of platform workers from self-employment status to employment status can provide them with adequate social security protection. Little is known about how this transition would guarantee platform workers adequate social protection within the social protection scheme for employees. National social security schemes, in particular income replacement benefit schemes, often (still) depart from the standard employment relationship, leading to lower protection for atypical work forms. Platform workers combine several of the characteristics of atypical forms of work, such as low earnings, irregular working patterns and working. Integrating platform workers into employee social security schemes faces additional challenges due to the online nature of their work, algorithmic management, high levels of unpaid labor, and employer identification difficulties. This paper focuses on unemployment protection, as EU Member States struggle to provide adequate protection for workers with irregular work patterns and income fluctuations, in the case of (short term) income replacement benefits. By constructing nine ideal work patterns reflective of diverse nature of platform work and current practices among platform work, we analyse how different types of ‘employed’ platform workers may fare within the legislation of three EU countries (Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands). This approach allows us to assess the applicability of unemployment protection to different working patterns among 'employed' platform workers, considering formal, effective, and adequate access to unemployment schemes as outlined in the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed (2019).
Abstract: Social trust is a moral resource with a normatively highly desirable pay-off. Previous research argues that universal welfare state programmes ‘make’ social trust whereas means-testing programmes ‘break’ it. Despite its important implications for welfare-state design, comparative longitudinal evidence for this hypothesis is scarce. To test whether within-country changes in social trust are associated with within-country changes in total, means-tested, and non-means tested social protection expenditure, I thus merge country-year specific ESSPROS welfare spending data with cross-country survey data from 30 countries that participated in the 2002–2019 European Social Survey. Results from multilevel regression models show that neither within-country changes in total nor means-tested or non-means tested social protection expenditure predict social trust. Based on insights from the welfare deservingness literature, the second part of my analysis concentrates on welfare spending directed at two different life-course risks, with sickness representing a risk that the public widely considers to be ‘deserving’ of welfare support, and unemployment acting as an ‘undeserving’ risk. I find that, within countries over time, means-tested healthcare expenditures predict decreases in social trust, whereas non-means tested healthcare expenditure is associated with increasing social trust. My results thus lend support for the hypothesis that welfare-state selectivity and universality can contribute to the making and breaking of social trust, but only when interventions target life-course risks that the public considers ‘deserving’ of welfare state support.
Abstract: This paper assesses the impact of distinct types of financial crises on social protection spending using a panel of 105 countries over the period 1991–2019. The findings show that spending on social protection increases when financial crises strike, mainly in the aftermath of banking crises. However, currency and debt crises are detrimental to spending on social protection, threatening social wellbeing.
Abstract: The paper examines the relationship between dependent variables (spending on social protection and spending on social protection benefits) and variables that capture the economic structure of the population and economic activity on the example of panel data of 26 European Union (EU) countries (except for Bulgaria and Croatia) over the years 2000-2017. In particular, the economic structure of the population is analysed by the age dependency ratio, while economic activity is expressed by the real GDP per capita growth rate and the unemployment rate. Regardless of the estimation technique for specifications with variables transformed to first differences, the results of the study indicate a statistically significant association between the dependent variables and the macroeconomic conditions of the EU countries. By contrast, the relationships between the dependency ratios and the dependent variables are positive but generally statistically insignificant, although EU countries are undergoing advanced processes of population ageing.
Abstract: In spite of the existence of an extensive national and supranational legal framework, European Union (EU) citizens who exercise their right to freedom of movement to work in another Member State face numerous hurdles in accessing social protection. While recent scholarship on street‐level bureaucracy and on migration and welfare has shed light on the role of discretion and stereotypes in access to rights, little is known about the processes through which such hurdles are overcome. In this article, we focus on a specific strategy which is the recourse to what we call “welfare brokers”. These actors offer assistance to EU migrants to overcome specific cross‐border administrative challenges in the area of social protection that derive from their use of the right to freedom of movement. Relying on qualitative data collected with brokers and Romanian migrants working in Germany, the article also demonstrates that welfare brokers attempt to transform the norms, bureaucratic practices and representations that condition access to these entitlements. The article concludes by underlining how the existence of a brokerage industry is a sign of existing inequalities in the exercise of freedom of movement within the EU.
Abstract: This article investigates the transformative potential of the Next Generation EU (NG‐EU) initiative in social protection taking South European (SE) countries as a test case. It starts with a brief examination of the main social parameters of the EPSR and how these intertwine with the NG‐EU strategy that links recovery from the pandemic with the EU's long‐term green and digital transition objectives. This is followed by a comparative overview of the SE countries' social, green and digital outlook when embarking upon the recovery path. In light of these, the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) of the four countries are scrutinised vis‐à‐vis the NG‐EU specified priority flagship areas. The political background of the plans, the impact of the EPSR on their policy options, and their recalibration potential are comparatively analysed. In setting the course for a twin transition, all four plans share a focus on addressing long‐standing social challenges mainly by bolstering productive welfare measures. But path‐dependent differences in policy mixes and varying policy integration can weigh significantly on outcomes.
Abstract: This article examines with empirical evidence the social protection measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in ten welfare states in the Global North. We analysed the potential similarities and differences in responses by welfare regimes. The comparative study was conducted with data from 169 measures, collected from domestic sources as well as from COVID-19 response databases and reports. In qualitative terms, we redeveloped Hall’s theory on the distinction between first-, second- and third-order changes. In accordance with the path-dependence thesis, we show systematically that the majority of the studied changes (91%) relied on a pre-pandemic tool demonstrating flexibility within social security systems. The relative share of completely new instruments was notable but modest (9%). Thematically, the social protection measures converged beyond traditional welfare regimes, particularly among the European welfare states. Somewhat surprisingly, the changes to social security systems related not just to emergency aid to mitigate traditional risks but, to a greater extent, also to prevent new risks from being actualised.
Abstract: In the process of European integration, the social dimension has to date been subordinated to presumed economic requirements. There have been no specific commitments to preserve the European Social Model (ESM), which has been gradually diluted as a result of successive EU enlargements, the impact of ageing, job insecurity and socio-cultural changes on social protection systems and the pressure exerted by globalisation in a context of ever harsher market competition. Moreover, the decisions adopted by the EU in addressing the 2008 economic crisis have led Community institutions gradually to impose reforms of pension systems and labour markets, particularly in southern countries, which threaten to reduce the level of protection provided for citizens. This paper argues that the EU aquis is not sufficient to prevent social competition and warns of the risks arising from the current dynamic in terms of maintaining social cohesion, equal opportunities and fairness as basic features of European identity. Some data that illustrate the varying degrees of intensity and effort in social welfare provisions by Member States and the gradual divergence in social protection benefits are provided (using dispersion measurements). In an effort to be proactive, a number of proposals are given with a view to reversing this trend and consolidating the social content of the European project.
Abstract: Empirical evidence informing policies aiming at ensuring affordability of long-term care (LTC) costs is limited. Combining system-level with individual-level data, we quantify the burden of out-of-pocket costs of LTC services on households in 13 European countries and the USA and explore how social protection systems impact affordability of care. In this observational study, we use harmonised data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), collected between 2012 and 2016, and from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, collected between 2013 and 2017. We assess the severity of LTC needs of older adults (65+) on the basis of self-reported limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). We classify countries' social protection systems in terms of affordability and progressivity using information obtained from country officials. (…)
Abstract: Two contrasting perspectives can be identified in the current literature on the relationship between European integration and the welfare state. On the one hand, the race to the bottom thesis presumes that welfare spending will be reduced to the lowest common denominator. On the other hand, the upward convergence thesis suggests that European integration supports and strengthens the capacities of national welfare states. This suggests that the consequences of European integration for national social protection systems are ambiguous. The current study contributes to this debate, by investigating the relationship between European integration and the welfare state from the perspective of public opinion. Do European citizens envision a race to the bottom or an upward convergence in social protection, and why so? Analysing data from the European Social Survey in 18 EU countries, the article reveals that the material benefits brought by national and supranational institutions, jointly shape citizens' expectations about the EU–welfare nexus, although in opposite directions. Generous national welfare provision fuels expectations that European integration fosters a race to the bottom for social protection levels, while higher receipts from EU Structural Fund programs and individual trust in EU institutions raise expectations of the EU as a catalyst of upward convergence in social standards. The implications of these findings for social policymaking in multilevel governance regimes are discussed.
Abstarct: The paper aims to rank European Union (EU) countries according to the composite index, which uses selected social protection indicators from the relevant database at EU level – Eurostat. The total score of social performance for 2020 was determined using the CRITIC-TOPSIS framework. The study showed that Austria, Luxembourg and Germany, respectively, had the best level of social protection, while Latvia, Romania and Spain were at the bottom, as the countries with the worst values of indicators. The importance of research is reflected in the fact that the social component of sustainable development is still not sufficiently researched, especially when it comes to the application of multi-criteria analysis methods in the empirical analysis of social sustainability. In this regard, depending on the obtained performance values, socio-economic policymakers can redesign existing measures and programs, as well as the amounts of social transfers to certain EU member states. The authors expect that the results of the study will help build higher social standards and well-being in the EU.
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