Towards productive welfare? A comparative analysis of 23 OECD countries

Abstract

Numerous analysts have suggested that globalization and the emergence of more knowledge-based economies have encouraged high-income nations to shift towards a model of productive welfare focused on social investment, yet typologies of welfare are still largely drawn on the basis of measures of social protection rather than social investment. Here we develop a classification of welfare state types that incorporates both productive and protective elements of social policy. Using fuzzy set ideal type analysis we explore data for a sample of 23 OECD countries in three time points: 1994, 1998 and 2003. Our findings provide no more than very modest support for claims that welfare states are shifting from protective to productive modes of provision and, in many cases, we identify a shift in the alternative direction. In addition, we identify some nations that are clearly productive in their focus and others that manage to combine productive and protective features

Health inequalities and welfare state regimes. A research note

“…In a similar line of argument, Hudson and Kühner (2009) raise doubts that, in times of economic globalisation, the Scandinavian, Social Democratic policy can successfully narrow the health gap between socioeconomic groups because it embodies a protective, socio-political approach.…”

Politics of Risk-taking : Welfare State Reform in Advanced Democracies

“…In the second stage, I cross-validate the findings from the first stage by applying an innovative method, fuzzy-set ideal type analysis. This technique builds on fuzzy-set theory (Ragin 2000; and is increasingly -but still rarely -used (Kvist 1999;Vis 2007a;Vis, Woldendorp & Keman 2007;Hudson & Kühner 2009). As indicated in chapter 2, fuzzyset ideal type analysis allows for the simultaneous assessment of quantitative changes and qualitative ones.…”

The Impact of Economic Globalization on the Employment Policies in 19 Western Democracies from 1985 to 2010. Limited Change or Radical Shift towards Workfare?

“…Moreover, the replacement rate data have been found to fluctuate considerably more than the expenditure data [49], an apparent source of inconsistency for the VARMAX time-series model, which is based on a stationarity assumption [10]. Taking the lesser of the two evils, this study improves the expenditure data by controlling the main source of demand in the employment policies (i.e., unemployment), as done in Vis [44], Hudson and Kühner [50], and Moreira and Lødemer [51]. This does not offer an optimal solution to the dependent variable problem in the field of employment policy, but is merely an attempt to cope with its presence.…”