Welfare Regimes and Education Regimes: Equality of Opportunity and Expenditure in the EU (and US)

Abstract

Education is crucially important for later outcomes but has received limited attention in comparative research on welfare states. In light of this, we present an exploratory analysis of education systems across fourteen EU countries and the US. This builds on existing work on educational institutions, educational outcomes and welfare regimes. We focus on institutional features associated with inequality of educational opportunity, including academic selection, tracking and public/private provision; on educational outcomes; and on education expenditure. Our quantitative analysis identifies four clusters of countries: the Nordic, Continental, Mediterranean and English-speaking, which bear similarities to those identified in the welfare states literature. Each 'education regime' is associated with particular institutional features, educational outcomes and levels of public expenditure. Our analysis suggests that further comparative research on education, viewed as a key component of the welfare state, is warranted.

Relationship between literacy skills and self-reported health in the Nordic countries

“…As the Nordic countries provide a high level of equality of access to all levels of education [20], our finding that literacy contributes to explaining sub-optimal SRH beyond, and almost to the same extent as, educational level is a strong finding. In line with findings from previous research [10], these people might be less able to maintain their own health, to take medications correctly, and to interpret labels and health messages.…”

“…The majority of the research in the field of literacy and health outcomes has been conducted in the USA, where access to education and good health care services is unevenly distributed [18,19]. Less is known about the association between literacy skills and health in the Nordic countries, where everyone has access to education [20] and good health care services irrespective of income [21]. From a public health perspective, knowledge about the associations between literacy skills and health among Nordic citizens when controlling for educational level can show whether literacy skills constitutes a ‘health risk’ beyond education.…”

Exam-oriented education and implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China

“…Equality of opportunity in education is a highly contested notion, and often has different meanings in different contexts (West and Nikolai, 2013). It may refer to equality of resources allocated to schools (Coleman, 1975), equality of access (e.g.…”

Academic, vocational or general? An analysis of public opinion towards education policies with evidence from a new comparative survey

“…Much of the existing work in comparative welfare state research is concerned with the macro-level of policy-making and the connection between education and welfare state regimes (Iversen and Stephens, 2008;West and Nikolai, 2013). Vice versa, scholarship in the tradition of educational sociology mostly analyses the microlevel and institutional determinants of educational choices with a particular focus on class biases in access to education and associated inequalities (see, for example, Breen et al, 2009;Brzinsky-Fay and Solga, 2016;Van de Werfhorst and Mijs, 2010).…”