Globalisation, welfare models and social expenditure in OECD countries

This brief, based on Santos and Simões (2021), discusses whether different manifestations of globalisation have the potential to influence the composition of social expenditure, highlighting the mediating role of welfare models. The findings for 36 OECD countries observed over the period 1990-2018 suggest that the influence of economic, political and social globalisation varies across welfare models in intensity but, in most cases, more globalised countries spend more on social policy. The Nordic regime shows a quantitatively more important positive reaction, especially for active labour market and housing policies. Health and education spending are not context specific, while survivors pensions, incapacity related and unemployment benefits and other social policy areas respond to factors other than globalisation. These findings may have important consequences for cross-country convergence in standards of living.

Author: Marcelo; Marta, Santos; Simoes
Volume: 2022.06
Publisher: INFER
Year: 2022
No. of pages: 4
Category:
INFER Briefs