How federalism influences welfare spending: Belgium federalism reform through the perspective of the synthetic control method

Abstract

The question of whether and how federalism influences a country's welfare state has been a longstanding concern of political scientists. However, no agreement exists on exactly how, and under what conditions, federal structures impact the welfare state. This article examines this controversy. It concludes theoretically that the specific constellation of federal structures and distribution of powers need to be considered when theorising the effects of federalism on the welfare state. Using the case of Belgium and applying the synthetic control method, it is shown in the article that without the federalism reform of 1993, the country would have had further decreases in social spending rather than a consolidation of this spending in the years after 1993. In the case of Belgium, the combination of increased subnational spending autonomy in a still national financing system provided ideal conditions for a positive federalism effect on social spending to occur.

Does Local Political Representation affect the Childcare Coverage Rate in Austrian Municipalities?

“…Literature on the relation between federalism and welfare contributes to a better understanding of the mutual influence and dependencies between the federal political system and the development of welfare state policies (see e.g. Arnold and Stadelmann-Steffen, 2017;Strohner, 2015;Wallner, 2010). The theory on the subsidiarization of the welfare state further facilitates and strengthens the argument of my superordinate research interest for the subnational variation in welfare states (Kazepov, 2008;Kleider, 2018;Loughlin, 2014).…”

Federalism, but how? The impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on economic growth. Evidence from Belgium*

“…Arnold and Stadelmann‐Steffen (2017) find a positive impact of the 1993 Belgian federal reform on social spending. Similarly, Dupuy and Van Ingelgom (2014) highlight that the imbalance in fiscal responsibility between local and central governments of the newly federal Belgium boosted social policy expenditure as a means to subnational legitimation and identity building.…”

Desempenho fiscal dos pequenos municípios brasileiros

“…Inúmeros estudos estão pautados sobre o tema federalismo e abordam questões como a centralização da arrecadação tributária, as transferências intergovernamentais e a aplicação dos recursos públicos, no mundo têm-se exemplos na Rússia (Alexeev & Kurlyandskaya, 2003) na Bélgica (Arnold & Stademann-Steffen, 2017), na Bolívia e no México (Rowland, 2001) e na Suíça (Fleiner, 2002). No Brasil destacam-se as pesquisas de (Arretche, 1999;Arretche, 2004;Varela et al, 2010;Santos, 2015), que trataram da relação entre as transferências intergovernamentais e os gastos locais.…”