Support for conditional unemployment benefit in European countries: The role of income inequality

an article by Renzo Carriero and Marianna Filandri (University of Turin, Italy) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 29 Issue 4 (October 2019)

Abstract

This article investigates attitudes towards the conditionality of benefits targeted to a specific needy group, the unemployed, and analyses their relationship with the structure of income inequality. The focus is on the deservingness of welfare recipients.

The public seems to use five criteria to define deservingness and, consequently, the conditionality to which public support is subjected:

1. need,
2. attitude (i.e. gratefulness),
3. control (over neediness),
4. reciprocity (of giving and receiving) and
5. identity, that is the similarity or proximity between the providers of public support (the taxpayers) and the people who should receive it. People’s willingness to help depends on how close they consider benefit recipients to be to themselves (i.e. the extent to which they belong to the same in-group). 

The identity criterion is the main object of our investigation. We argue that the operation of this criterion at the micro-level can be affected by macro-level variables.

Specifically, we focus on different measures of the structure of income inequality which are indicators of the social distance between welfare recipients and taxpayers. Based on data from three waves of the European Values Study (1990–2008) collected in

30 countries, the study offers a comparative and longitudinal analysis. The picture emerging from the within-country analysis – which removed much of the between-country heterogeneity − shows that when the social distance grows, it is more difficult for the majority of citizens (upper and middle classes) to identify with the unemployed.

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Why deservingness theory needs qualitative research: Comparing focus group discussions on social welfare in three welfare regimes

an article by Tijs Laenen, Federica Rossetti and Wim van Oorschot (KU Leuven, Belgium) published in International Journal of Comparative Sociology Volume 60 Issue 3 (June 2019)

Abstract

This article argues that the ever-growing research field of welfare deservingness is in need of qualitative research. Using focus group data collected in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom, we show that citizens discussing matters of social welfare make explicit reference not only to the deservingness criteria of control, reciprocity, and need but also to a number of context-related criteria extending beyond the deservingness framework (e.g. equality/universalism).

Furthermore, our findings suggest the existence of an institutional logic to welfare preferences, as the focus group participants to a large extent echoed the normative criteria that are most strongly embedded in the institutional structure of their country’s welfare regime.

Whereas financial need is the guiding criterion in the “liberal” United Kingdom, reciprocity is dominant in “corporatist-conservative” Germany. In “social-democratic” Denmark, it appears impossible to single out one dominant normative criterion. Instead, the Danish participants seem torn between the criteria of need, reciprocity, and equality/universalism.

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Satisfaction with democracy and perceived performance of the welfare state in Europe

an article by Tomáš Sirovátka, Martin Guzi and Steven Saxonberg (Masaryk University, Czech Republic) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 29 Issue 2 (May 2019)

Abstract

This article tests several hypotheses for explaining the link between welfare-state performance and satisfaction with democracy.

In conducting our multilevel analysis, we combine data from the European Social Survey 2012 special module on democracy with data on contextual and institutional conditions, including those on welfare-state regimes.

Our results show that a discrepancy between desired policy goals and perceived policy outcomes in connection with the welfare state (i.e. the policy deficit) influences citizens’ perceptions of how well democracy in their country works. Social policies which citizens see as reducing poverty correlate positively with satisfaction with democracy.

We also find evidence that satisfaction with democracy depends on the type of welfare regime, as well as on changes in economic conditions that arise due to financial crisis.

Responsiveness of wives’ labour supply to husbands’ job loss

a column by Julia Bredtmann, Sebastian Otten and Christian Rulff for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Little is known about how unemployment shocks are absorbed within the household. This column uses longitudinal micro data for 28 European countries to investigate the effect of husbands’ job loss on wives’ labour supply. Overall, there is evidence that women increase their labour supply in response to their husband losing a job. However, the response varies over both the business cycle and across different welfare regimes.

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Returning to the parental home: Boomerang moves of younger adults and the welfare regime context

an article by Rowan Arundel and Christian Lennartz (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 27 Issue 3 (July 2017)

Abstract

Returns to the parental home represent a dramatic housing career interruption that can have significant social and economic implications.

Interaction of individual characteristics with turning point shocks, such as unemployment or partnership dissolution, are key triggering events; however, housing disruptions are further embedded within variegated social, cultural and institutional contexts. Fundamental is the nature of the welfare regime, explaining norms surrounding co-residence as well as the amount and type of resources available.

Through analyses using the Eurostat Longitudinal Survey on Income and Living Conditions, the research establishes a foundational understanding of how factors at both the individual as well as institutional and socio-cultural level moderate young adults’ housing interruptions across Europe.

The results showed a significant welfare regime effect in outcomes of returned co-residence as well as evidence of differentiations across regimes in how individual characteristics and the experience of turning points related to returns.

Higher return propensities were found among more familialistic contexts of Southern Europe and New Member States, while lower likelihoods were evident in the face of stronger state support and practices of earlier autonomy in Social Democratic and, to a lesser degree, intermediate Conservative regime contexts.

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