Social investment as a conceptual framework for analysing well-being returns and reforms in 21st century welfare states

Abstract

Welfare provision is often conceived through the lens of decommodification and analysed in (re)distributive terms. This article argues that a distributive approach does not sufficiently capture the complexity of 21st century welfare state dynamics. It proposes re-conceptualizing provision as a mix of three policy functions: raising and maintaining human capital stock; easing the flow of gendered life-course and labour-market transitions; guaranteeing social safety-net buffers. This analytical perspective allows theorizing life-course multiplier effects and policy (non-)complementarities, both at the level of individual objective and subjective well-being and in terms of aggregate employment, poverty and fiscal sustainability. This perspective also enables us to extend the temporal horizon of welfare politics beyond short-term electoral logics for explaining welfare reform. The article underscores how methodological pluralism remains key for understanding contemporary welfare states, and for grasping welfare outcomes and institutional change in a research endeavour that involves both generalization and contextualization.

Gear up for safety: Investing in a new automotive future in China

“…It also emphasizes the importance of continuous monitoring for solution selection and management. The study investigates if reducing the return on a portfolio can jeopardize the investor's goal of achieving a minimum level of return (Hemerijck et al, 2023). The methodology evaluates the investment opportunities based on four parameters: business environment, regulatory landscape, cultural nuances, and market dynamics.…”

Health systems in the COVID‐19 crises: Comparative patterns of NHS satisfaction and preferences for public health action in Scotland and England

“…1 Investing in health and the healthcare sector is an inherent part of the social investment approach (Goijaerts et al, 2023;Schwander, 2019). A sustainable welfare state requires a healthy well-educated workforce for example, while social investment welfare states promote greater social wellbeing (Deeming & Hayes, 2012;Hemerijck et al, 2023).…”

Education and active labour market policy complementarities in promoting employment: Reinforcement, substitution and compensation

“…The social investment life‐course multiplier introduced by Hemerijck (2017) aims at capturing both the macro‐ and micro‐ level dynamics of policy interactions. It posits that well‐being returns to social investments are cumulatively reinforced by the presence of complementary policy combinations or ‘bundles’ that people are exposed to over their life course (Hemerijck et al, 2022, p. 8). How exactly these policy bundles cumulatively reinforce each other and whether complementarity is expected to follow different dynamics at a micro and macro level is not explicitly described and requires further theorization.…”

“…Recent welfare state scholarship calls for more attention to policy interactions in social policy research (Hemerijck et al, 2022 ; Yerkes et al, 2022 ). Interest in policy complementarities in shaping welfare outcomes is not new.…”