Improving the Performance of the European Social Model - The Welfare State over the Life Cycle

Arbeitspapier

The achievements of social-welfare arrangements in Western Europe are well known: considerable income security, relatively little poverty and, in some countries, ample supply of social services. But there are also well-known weaknesses and hence considerable scope for improvement. Three types of weaknesses are considered in this paper: social-welfare arrangements are often not financially robust to shocks; individuals make undesirable behavioural adjustments in response to welfare-state arrangements and their financing; and social-welfare arrangements are often poorly adapted to recent changes in socio-economic conditions and preferences of individuals. I discuss these weaknesses, and alternative methods to mitigate them, in the context of various types of welfare-state arrangements that the individual may encounter over the life cycle.

Show object

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IUI Working Paper ; No. 587

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Public Economics: General ; Publicly Provided Goods: General ; National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General
• Subject: Social Policies ; Welfare State ; Labour Market ; Family Structure ; Preferences ; Sozialpolitik ; Sozialstaat ; Arbeitsmarkt ; Familiensoziologie ; Europa

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lindbeck, Assar
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2003

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/81242