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Social Security Strategies and Redistributive Effects in European Social Transfer Systems
Author(s) -
Kraus Margit
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.0034-6586.2004.00133.x
Subject(s) - redistribution (election) , social security , economics , argument (complex analysis) , linkage (software) , public economics , microeconomics , transfer (computing) , political science , computer science , market economy , law , biochemistry , politics , gene , chemistry , parallel computing
This paper evaluates the linkage between social security strategies and redistributive effects in EU social transfer systems. It is argued that the various European systems produce different patterns of redistribution that may be explained by the adoption of different mixes of social security strategies. In support of this argument, several ideal‐typical strategies are characterized and a classification of European social transfer systems is introduced. Subsequently, the redistributive effects of the systems are assessed and the relationship to their class assignment is investigated. We conclude that the redistributive effects differ markedly between systems of different classes, indicating that redistributive patterns are heavily influenced by the adopted strategy mix.