Documents social expenditure 164 results

"This paper looks at the difference between the levels and nature of social policy expenditure in northern and northwest European countries and the countries of southern, central, and eastern Europe, and examines the relationship between social investment and state capacity in these country groupings. The authors show that southern and eastern countries have a much greater preference for ‘compensating' rather than ‘capacitating' social policy spending. Furthermore, the state capacity in these countries is lower, which generates less state revenue. Based on these observations they conclude that low state capacity and low state revenue go hand in hand with the preference for capacitating social policies, as these policies involve less delegation and discretion than social investment policies. This paper shows that high state capacity is probably a necessary precondition for effective social investment policies, although some limited alternative paths do exist."

"The annual review of Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) provides analytical support for EU and national policy actions in pursuit of the Europe 2020 employment and social objectives. It considers the latest available data and provides analysis of key employment and

social developments and challenges in the EU and its Member States.

It aims to contribute to the European Semester and new policy initiatives such as the New Skills Agenda, the European Agenda for the Collaborative Economy, the New Start for Social Dialogue, the Action Plan on the Integration of Third-Country Nationals and the development of a European Pillar of Social Rights."

"Les dépenses de protection sociale représentent aujourd'hui près de 672 milliards d'euros en France, soit 31,8 % du PIB. Le lent processus de construction de ce système a abouti à une architecture complexe avec de multiples acteurs aux décisions non coordonnées, les choix d'ensemble étant finalement peu transparents. Les auteurs de cette nouvelle note du CAE, Antoine Bozio et Brigitte Dormont, font le point sur cette architecture et proposent des pistes pour une restructuration permettant à la fois l'expression des choix démocratiques et l'indispensable recherche d'efficacité, en mettant l'accent sur les retraites et l'assurance maladie, qui représentent près de 80 % des dépenses de protection sociale. (…)"

"Success in raising employment levels and living standards in Europe depends on effective support policies as well as positive macro-economic strategies. In this respect, this year's Employment and Social Developments review addresses a range of issues.
It starts by looking at the contribution of entrepreneurship and self-employment to job creation and growth and the need to tackle the difficulties faced by the self-employed and notably micro and small companies. It then looks at the role of labour legislation in supporting more and better jobs and the need to strike the right balance between flexibility and protection. It then moves on to look at the best actions to avoid unemployment turning into long-term unemployment and inactivity. More broadly, given technology change, globalisation and population ageing, which translates into a reduction in the working-age population, the EU needs to increase employment and increase productivity. Mobility and migration can play an important role here. In relation to this, Europe needs to improve skills and better match skills with evolving demands. It also needs to promote labour market participation of older workers and women. Social policies, including pension policies and family policies (for example, child care and long-term care), can support longer working lives and increase employment of women. Promoting social dialogue and the involvement of social partners in the development of employment and social policies may help the implementation and effectiveness of such policies.
The review is available in printed and electronic format in English. All the graphs and tables can be downloaded both in gif and excel format by accessing the individual chapters. "

"Two causal mechanisms have been invoked to explain the positive correlation between union membership and social expenditure. Unions try to influence policy, but they are also more successful in mobilizing members in economic systems in which actors engage in co-ordinated strategic interaction. Applying insights from the policy feedback and comparative capitalism literatures, our analysis indicates that union density is a determinant of social expenditure. A strong policy feedback effect is also present whereby social expenditure has a positive effect on union density. We find a positive effect of union density on social expenditure in co-ordinated market economies, but not in liberal market economies. We discuss the implications of these findings for citizens' capacity to influence policy in varied contexts and for the ‘varieties of capitalism' literature, and we close with some speculation about the implications of these findings in the current economic downturn."

"Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Auswirkungen der durch die Troika forcierten „Strukturreformen“ in Griechenland. Die auf Lohnkürzungen abzielenden Maßnahmen hatten einen Einbruch der Binnennachfrage und eine Verschärfung der Krise zur Folge. Die empirische Evidenz steht im Widerspruch zur dominanten Sichtweise auf die Ursachen für die Vertiefung der Krise, deren Überwindung eine Beendigung der „Strukturreformen“ erfordert, die auf Kürzungsmaßnahmen und Arbeitsmarktderegulierung abzielen."

"This paper aims to shed light on the relative importance of the discourse on social investment and social innovation in Austrian social policy by examining their role in academic and civil society discussions and presenting some evidence of current empirical developments. It is shown that the idea of social innovation is increasingly being promoted by industry, the media and civil society. In terms of social investment, the perspective has only recently been taken up by some researchers and interest groups. Depending on its very definition, however, empirical data on social investment expenditures suggest – also in comparison with other conservative welfare states – increasing or decreasing trends of this type of social security expenditures in Austria."

"L'article se propose de faire une analyse de la viabilité des modèles sociaux européens. À l'aube de la sortie de la crise de 2008, les pays membres de l'Union européenne ont fait face à une hausse des déficits publics et en conséquence des dettes publiques. Les dépenses sociales – par définition les stabilisateurs automatiques – ont contribué à ces augmentations. Dans un contexte post-crise où il est question de revenir à des niveaux de déficits et de dettes respectant le cadre institutionnel européen, est-ce que les dépenses sociales peuvent être réduites sans remettre en cause les modèles sociaux européens ? La croissance économique est la clé de la viabilité du système social. Cependant, cela veut dire que l'Europe reste concurrentielle en termes de coûts et productivité et qu'elle retrouve des marges de manœuvre budgétaires. Cela est d'autant plus important que lorsqu'une crise survient, elle augmente les tensions et révèle les fragilités."

"The concept of social investment has gained ground on the EU-level, manifested among other things in the launching of the ‘Social investment package' by the EU Commission in 2013 and subsequent engagement in the follow up of that initiative. In this context, the Nordic experience has no doubt played an important role and Sweden is an interesting case in point for discussing the social investment approach. We argue that Sweden has long tradition of social investment which has contributed to a number of positive outcomes, such as low poverty and high employment. However, our examination of more recent trends suggests that the achievements are now jeopardised by the trend towards a cheaper ‘Third Way' version of the social investment approach. Since the investment quality of policy interventions has been diluted, not least in the field of active labour market policy, and old redistribution policies are at drift, it has become difficult to combat old as well as new inequalities and social divisions. Still, a more enlightened development path is open but requires serious recasting of the social investment policy package."

"Economic policies shape how much people earn as well as how stable their income and jobs are. The level and stability of earnings both matter for well-being. Standard economic aggregates do not measure accurately the economic uncertainty which households are facing. This paper shows that household-level economic instability is only very loosely related to macroeconomic volatility. It uses several household-level databases to document how pro-growth reforms influence household-level economic stability. Movement from less to more productive processes and firms is at the heart of economic growth, which suggests a trade-off between growth and micro-level stability. Certain policy changes boost growth but increase micro-level instability: they include reductions in tax progressivity or social transfers (including unemployment benefits) as well as moves from very to moderately tight restrictions on the flow of goods and services and on the dismissal of regular workers. However, the analysis also uncovers that moving to highly competitive policies generally reduces micro-level instability."