scholarly journals Do Welfare Policies Matter for Labor Market Aggregates? Quantifying Safety Net Work Incentives since 2007

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey Mulligan
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Work Incentives ◽  
Welfare Policies

Living Standards in Edwardian England and the Liberal Welfare Reforms

2018 ◽  
pp. 169-216
Author(s):  
George R. Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
First World ◽  
Welfare Reforms

This chapter argues that the Liberal Welfare Reforms of 1906–11, which created a safety net reducing the economic insecurity associated with industrial capitalism, marked a watershed in the history of British social welfare policy. Their timing is explained by increased middle-class knowledge of workers' insecurity and by the greater willingness of Parliament to act as a result of growing working-class political influence. The chapter then compares British social welfare policies with social policies elsewhere in Western Europe. Britain's welfare reforms did not take place in isolation—several European nations adopted social welfare policies in the decades leading up to 1914. Indeed, Britain was a bit of a latecomer in the adoption of social programs, although it caught up quickly after 1906 and by the eve of the First World War was a leader in social welfare protection.

scholarly journals Informality in the time of COVID-19 in Latin America: Implications and policy options

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261277
Author(s):  
Ivonne Acevedo ◽  
Francesca Castellani ◽  
Giulia Lotti ◽  
Miguel Székely
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Tax Payments ◽  
The Stability

This paper analyzes the dynamics of the labor market in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a decade of a virtuous circle of growth with the creation of formal jobs, the pandemic has had an considerable impact on the region’s labor market, generating an unparalleled increase in the proportion of the inactive population, considerable reductions in informality, and, in contrast, smaller fluctuations in formal jobs. In this context, the formal sector, given its lower flexibility, became a "social safety net" that preserved the stability of employment and wages. Based on the findings presented in this paper, it is projected that, starting in 2021, informality will grow to levels higher than those of the pre-COVID-19 era–with 7.56 million additional informal jobs–as a result of the population returning to the labor market to compensate for the declines in incomes. According to the simulations presented, postponing or forgiving income tax payments and social security contributions conditional on the generation of formal jobs could reduce the growth of informality by 50 to 75 percent. Achieving educational improvements has the potential to reduce it by 50 percent.

scholarly journals The Consequences of Ambiguity: Designing and Implementing the ESSN

2021 ◽  
pp. 115-142
Author(s):  
Ceren Ark-Yıldırım ◽  
Marc Smyrl
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Limited Access ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Stated Purpose ◽  
Vulnerable Persons

AbstractThe stated purpose of the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) was to contribute to meeting the basic needs of the most vulnerable refugees in Turkey. In the context of this book’s argument, we ask whether it achieved this goal but also whether and to what extent it contributed to extending elements of market citizenship to forced migrants. We conclude that while the ESSN’s CT program made a limited contribution to meeting basic needs and empowering displaced persons as consumers, other elements of market citizenship, or even “denizenship,” are lacking. With regard to its explicit targets, the effectiveness of ESSN was limited by the ambiguities of its design, linked to the different priorities of the agencies involved, which exclude some vulnerable persons from the program. More broadly, very limited access to the formal labor market remained an obstacle to fuller market citizenship.

scholarly journals Labor Market Insiders or Outsiders? A Cross-National Examination of Redistributive Preferences of the Working Poor

Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asaf Levanon
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Working Poor ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
National Data ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
National Examination ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Cross National

Prior research on attitudes toward redistribution documents an association between one’s policy preferences and socioeconomic position, as well as an impact of welfare policy on the mean level of support for redistribution. Building on both traditions, the current paper aims to expand our understanding of the sources of public support for welfare policies by examining the role that social policy plays in shaping the policy preferences of the working poor. Building on the distinction between labor market insiders and outsiders, this paper examines whether preferences by the working poor more closely resemble those of non-poor workers or those of non-working poor individuals. Results from this study show that the degree of support for redistribution among the working poor is notably closer to the average degree reported by non-working poor individuals than the mean level reported by non-poor workers. Moreover, utilizing cross-national data from 31 countries in 13 different time-points between 1985 and 2010, the paper documents a much smaller preference gap between non-poor workers and the working poor and a higher overall level of support for redistribution in countries providing a greater degree of employment protection.

scholarly journals The parental home as labor market insurance for young Greeks during the Great Recession

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Rebekka Christopoulou ◽  
Maria Pantalidou
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Reverse Causality ◽  
Parental Home ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Labor market conditions in Greece have severely deteriorated during the crisis, affecting youths the most. Using the Greek crisis as a case-study, this paper examines the role of the family as a social safety net for its young members. Specifically, we test the relationship between youth labor outcomes and parental co-residence, whether this relationship has become stronger during the crisis, and the degree to which the relationship is causal. Our results confirm that the parental home is a refuge both for jobless youth and for those in poorly paid, insecure jobs, and this role has intensified during the crisis. We find no reverse causality between co-residence and employment status for young men, and significant reverse causality for women. This finding implies that all youths live in the parental home when they are in need themselves, but it is young women not men who live with parents when parents are in need or for cultural reasons.

scholarly journals Long-term labor market returns to upper secondary school track choice: Leveraging idiosyncratic variation in peers’ choices

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Fels Birkelund ◽  
Herman Gerbert van de Werfhorst
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Market Returns ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Labor Market Returns ◽  
Term Labor

Vocational education and training (VET) is theorized to play a dual role for inequality of labor market outcomes: the role of a safety net and the role of socioeconomic diversion. In this paper, we test these hypotheses by examining the long-term labor market returns to track choice in upper secondary education in Denmark using an instrumental variable approach that relies on random variation in school peers’ educational decisions. We report two main findings. First, VET diverts students on the margin to the academic track away from higher-status but not higher-paying occupations. Second, VET protects students on the margin to leaving school from risks of non-employment and unskilled work, also leading to higher earnings. These results suggest that in countries with a highly compressed wage structure, a strong VET system benefits students unlikely to continue to college, while causing few adverse consequences for students on the margin to choosing academic education.

Fighting Youth Unemployment

2020 ◽  
pp. 348-371
Author(s):  
Tom Chevalier
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Growth Strategy ◽  
Economic Institutions ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Youth Welfare ◽  
Labor Market Policies ◽  
Youth Citizenship ◽  
Citizenship Regimes

The chapter stresses that the transition to a post-industrial society has consequences on the life course, and especially on the transition from childhood to adulthood. However, this transition varies significantly between countries, because of different institutional arrangements. Accordingly, the chapter analyzes these different arrangements of socio-economic institutions, including education, labor market policies, and welfare policies (with student support), by presenting the typology of “youth welfare citizenship regimes.” The second part of the chapter proceeds to four “typical” case studies showing how different growth regimes presented in the first chapter shape these youth welfare citizenship regimes (France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Then it analyzes how growth strategies (the reforms implemented by governments in order to boost growth and job creation) have recently been influencing the evolution of youth citizenship regimes, especially through reforms of active labor market policies (ALMP) that aim to fight youth unemployment. The argument here is not causal but rather contextual and systemic, and the objective of the case studies is therefore to present the coherence between a growth regime and the way socio-economic institutions structure the entry into adulthood, leading to a specific youth welfare citizenship regime, and how reforms inspired by a specific growth strategy contributes to transform youth welfare regime.

Social Welfare Policy and Living Standards between the Wars

2018 ◽  
pp. 217-259
Author(s):  
George R. Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Disability Insurance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social

This chapter describes the interwar expansion of social welfare policies and their role in alleviating economic insecurity in an era of unprecedented unemployment. The social security system established before the war and extended in the 1920s consisted of several independently administered programs—unemployment insurance, sickness and disability insurance, old age pensions, widows' and orphans' insurance, and the Poor Law. This safety net of many colors proved to be quite successful in alleviating poverty and maintaining the well-being of working-class households. The important role played by the safety net is clearly shown in the social surveys undertaken in the 1930s—between one-third and one-half of all working-class families surveyed received social income of some form. While the condition of the working class would have been considerably worse without the safety net, it contained many holes, which led to calls for a restructuring of social policy.

The Winding Road to the Welfare State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George R. Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Poor Law ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Welfare Reforms

How did Britain transform itself from a nation of workhouses to one that became a model for the modern welfare state? This book investigates the evolution of living standards and welfare policies in Britain from the 1830s to 1950 and provides insights into how British working-class households coped with economic insecurity. The book examines the retrenchment in Victorian poor relief, the Liberal Welfare Reforms, and the beginnings of the postwar welfare state, and it describes how workers altered spending and saving methods based on changing government policies. From the cutting back of the Poor Law after 1834 to Parliament's abrupt about-face in 1906 with the adoption of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, the book offers new explanations for oscillations in Britain's social policies and how these shaped worker well-being. The Poor Law's increasing stinginess led skilled manual workers to adopt self-help strategies, but this was not a feasible option for low-skilled workers, many of whom continued to rely on the Poor Law into old age. In contrast, the Liberal Welfare Reforms were a major watershed, marking the end of seven decades of declining support for the needy. Concluding with the Beveridge Report and Labour's social policies in the late 1940s, the book shows how the Liberal Welfare Reforms laid the foundations for a national social safety net. A sweeping look at economic pressures after the Industrial Revolution, this book illustrates how British welfare policy waxed and waned over the course of a century.

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