To aid, insure, transfer, or control : what drives the welfare state?

Arbeitspapier

The paper uses panel data on OECD countries to assess four theories about the forces that generate social spending. The four theories are: Aid: the Welfare State is about helping the poor. Insure: the Welfare State insures the consumption of middle-class voters. Transfer: the Welfare State transfers money to politically-powerful entitled groups. Control: the Welfare State is about controlling the behavior of the underclass. The data give the following grades: Aid D-, Insure C+, Transfer A-, Control D. This assessment is made by regressing the share of social spending in GDP on a vector of country characteristics. The methods involve simultaneous equation fixed-effects models, and they take advantage of some recent innovations in the growth literature involving the treatment of country-level panel data

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 281

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Sozialstaat ; Öffentliche Sozialausgaben ; Public Choice ; Schätzung ; Industriestaaten

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Castronova, Edward
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2002

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/18265
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET