Reassessing welfare state generosity: A focus on new social risks

This paper addresses the long-standing issue of welfare state generosity measurement, by adopting a new perspective that focus on how welfare states are responding to new social risks linked to emergent forms of vulnerability. Namely, an emphasis is put on labour market polarization as well as child...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: López Gallego, Julián, Buendía, Luis
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:biblosearchi::b6e99ba20af08f76caaf0d33780d1f92
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10486/758002
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-026-03808-w
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:General welfare
Well-Being
Government expenditures and welfare programs
Social policy
Welfare-state regimes
Economía
Descripción
Sumario:This paper addresses the long-standing issue of welfare state generosity measurement, by adopting a new perspective that focus on how welfare states are responding to new social risks linked to emergent forms of vulnerability. Namely, an emphasis is put on labour market polarization as well as childcare needs in the context of family model changes. Our work therefore constitutes a re-examination of Esping-Andersen’s The Worlds of Welfare State hypothesis and his main empirical application, made by revi¬sioning both the analytical and methodological basis behind the so-called Welfare-State Decommodification Index. The results rest on a collection of public data from various statistical sources and point out that, at least concerning new social risks, the conven¬tional division between social-democratic Nordic Europe and more conservative Conti-nental Europe welfare regimes is somewhat blurred. Furthermore, dynamic versions of the indexes are constructed to examine the question of welfare state retrenchment and mixed-insights are found