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Financing social security in the EU: Business as usual?
Author(s) -
WAGNER Norman
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international labour review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.433
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1564-913X
pISSN - 0020-7780
DOI - 10.1111/j.1564-913x.2012.00152.x
Subject(s) - austerity , recession , economics , stimulus (psychology) , welfare , social security , revenue , financial crisis , social protection , social welfare , tax revenue , economic policy , finance , public economics , macroeconomics , market economy , economic growth , political science , politics , psychology , law , psychotherapist
. This article assesses how well welfare models with different financing mechanisms cope with a major financial crisis. It focuses on five EU countries, which represent different welfare models. It also analyses how the crisis and the associated stimulus or austerity measures changed financing, revealing a regressive impact. It demonstrates that, in the short‐ or medium‐term, contribution‐based social systems have more stable public finances during a recession than tax‐based systems. That said, the corporatist/continental welfare model seems most likely to remain stable in the long run, in so far as it focuses on keeping employment – the system's main source of revenue – stable.