The pathway followed by the Korean welfare state is particularly interesting: some forms of welfare provision originated during the authoritarian period, but mostly aiming at obtaining political legitimation and public support. However, the situation began to change with the end of the military...

This book describes and analyzes social programs in Mexico in a comprehensive way. The welfare state has exceptional features in each country, related to its own labor market and other institutions. The book evaluates the structure and regulation of the Mexican social protection system. It...

How can we measure whether national institutions in general, and regulatory institutions in particular, are dysfunctional? A central question is whether they are helping a nation’s citizens to live good lives. A full answer to that question would require a great deal of philosophical work, but...

Since the ideologically coloured meaning of the 'welfare state', implying a massive level of redistribution and high government spending in the field of social policy, does not match the reality of a number of today's welfare state systems, especially outside Europe, this article examines the...

This study examines the nature and variations of welfare state systems in Northeast Asia, taking the examples of Japan, South Korea and Mainland China. While parting from the very popular and dominating classification of welfare states of Esping-Andersen, this article proposes the existence of...

Economies with low unemployment often have high disability rates. In Norway, the permanent disability insurance rolls outnumber registered unemployment by four to one. Based on administrative register data matched with firms' financial statements and closure data collected from bankruptcy...

Several empirical papers have indicated that the health inequalities in the Nordic welfare states seem to be at least as high as health inequalities in other European countries even if the Nordic states have a more egalitarian income structure. This is in contrast to standard economic theory...

We examine the effect of publicly provided health care on welfare by combining local level data on public health care, and individual level data on life satisfaction. It is shown that relatively high expenditures in health care have a positive effect on individuals' life satisfaction in our...

Im Großen und Ganzen sind die Sozialversicherungen zukunftsfähig aufgestellt; gleichwohl besteht weiterer Handlungsbedarf. Mit der Agenda 2010 und dem Wechsel von einem Defined Benefit- auf ein Defined Contribution-System hat die Regierung Schröder den ersten, mit der Schuldenregel, der Rente...

Germany's social security system is surveyed, its benefits and contributions are discussed. The expansion of this system in the last decades is described, its impact on employment and growth is studied and proposals for the reform of the system are discussed.