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The legitimacy of a pension system or any social security program depends on its credibility and perceived fairness. In order to gauge this legitimacy, we need to understand the relation between people's knowledge and attitudes. This experimental survey into the role of knowledge and perceptions divided respondents into two groups: the ‘treatment’ group received an information letter about a forthcoming pension reform before they were interviewed, while the control group was interviewed without receiving this ‘treatment’. Comparisons of the responses from the two groups allow us to assess how the level of knowledge and the provision of information affect people's opinions on policy reform. We also consider the patterns of covariation between background factors, people's concerns, and attitudes toward pension reform. The results show that the information letter had a significant impact on subjective but not on the objective level of knowledge. Receiving the information letter improved acceptance and perceptions of the fairness of the reform.

In this study, we analyse the relationship of participation in the Finnish basic income (BI) experiment and people’s attitudes towards a BI. The experiment, implemented in 2017–2018, aimed to improve citizens’ employment and well-being by reducing the eligibility conditions of basic social benefits and by increasing monetary incentives to find employment. The data on attitudes come from responses to a survey carried out during the experiment. Identical questions were posed to the treatment (receiving the BI) and the control group of the experiment. The contributions of this paper are (1) an estimation of the relationship between participation and opinions on BI, (2) an analysis of the heterogeneity of the relationship and (3) an estimation of the relationship between participation and people’s ability to express their opinions on BI. Our findings indicate that participation in the experiment significantly explains people’s support for a BI and their ability to express opinions.

This entry traces past and present trends in the institutional development of income transfers in the case of work accident and sickness. The focus is mainly on OECD or European countries, but in some instances, references are made to a wider array of countries or continents. The entry begins with a review of the history of work accident insurance; in most countries, this was the first social insurance programme to be created. The history of this early programme highlights a number of factors behind the development of later programmes. The latter part of the entry focuses on sickness insurance. Again, we begin with historical developments, focusing in particular on the universalism and generosity of benefits. We then move on to discuss the extent to which sickness benefits have, in recent years, been targets for retrenchment. The final section tentatively discusses future trajectories of these two income maintenance programmes.

The goal of the Finnish experiment that started this year is to try to get some evidence on how a new social policy instrument mimicking a basic income would work and what kind of behavioural consequences it would have. At this point, there are many strong arguments being made both in favour of and opposed to basic income. Unfortunately, there are not enough facts yet. The Finnish experiment hopes to change that.

Olli Kangas analyses crisis management strategies in two economic crises in Finland: the very deep crisis of the 1990s and the post-2008 recession. Since 2008, gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been weak, unemployment has increased, and domestic demand is being held back by low-income growth. Due to the EU embargo against Russia, Finnish exports to the East ceased, reinforcing the stagnation. For nine years, the national budget and those of municipalities have been running a deficit. A series of austerity packages have made the Finnish welfare state leaner and meaner. Surprisingly, despite cuts in welfare provisions and the high level of unemployment, poverty and inequality of disposable incomes have been declining during the 2010s, due to the protective capacity of the Finnish welfare state. Financial hardship has not increased. However, the prolonged recession may have some long-standing negative consequences that may only become visible in the coming decades.

This introductory chapter by Stefán Ólafsson, Mary Daly, Olli Kangas, and Joakim Palme sets the scene for this volume’s approach. It starts by describing the main research questions, the context, and the underlying themes. It then lays out the explanatory framework that guides the analysis and ends with an overview of each chapter of the book. The book combines general comparative studies of some 30 European countries with a more in-depth analysis of 9 countries, spanning differential experiences of the Great Recession. These include four countries that experienced a very deep crisis (Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain), three that were not as severely affected (Denmark, Finland, UK), and two that were only modestly affected (Norway and Sweden). The book shows that the welfare state played a much larger role in averting negative crisis consequences than during the Great Depression of the 1930s, its influence varying considerably between countries or welfare regimes.

Gegenstand dieses Beitrags sind die Geldleistungen der Unfall- und Krankenversicherung. Zunachst wird die historische Entwicklung der Unfallversicherung dargestellt, die nicht nur in den meisten Landern als erster Sozialversicherungszweig eingefuhrt wurde, sondern auch sehr hohe Leistungen gewahrt. Danach wird die historische Entwicklung der Krankenversicherung skizziert, wobei das Augenmerk auf die Reichweite und Hohe der Geldleistungen gelegt wird. Abschliesend wird untersucht, inwieweit monetare Leistungen im Krankheitsfall in den letzten Jahren Gegenstand von Kurzungen waren.

In all countries, there are differences in health between socio-economic groups. In Finland those health differences are comparatively large. Why there is such wide cross-national variation in relative health differences between socio-economic groups remains an unanswered question. One brand of explanations links health outcomes to income inequalities. The other brand of explanations emphasizes the role of health care systems and unequal access to health care. The latter explanation has dominated the Finnish debate, which is motivated by the fact that the OECD has classified the Finnish health care system as one of the most unequalizing in the industrial countries. A third set of explanations argues that health outcomes are related to the size of the health budget. In this article, we focus on socio-economic differences in selfassessed health. We ask how strongly socio-economic health differences are linked to income inequalities (H1), how satisfactorily the characteristics of health care systems explain these differences (H2), and what the relative role of the health budget is (H3). The comparisons show that the socio-economic health differences among 17 European countries are more strongly associated to the health budget (H3) than to the features of health care systems (H2) or income inequality (H1). However, these two explanations also get qualified support— but bigger seems to be better.

Purpose – In their income inequality theory (IIT), Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett posit that income inequality is at the heart of social “ills”. However, their critics argue that the hypothesis is biased and that “cherry picking” is used and support for the IIT is obtained by selecting a suitable sample of countries. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – With a sample of 127 countries, the authors study to what extent the correlation between income inequality and social “ills” varies among countries sampled by geography, religion and income level. Findings – The results of the analysis show that the strength and sometimes the direction of connections between inequality and social “ills” vary according to countries’ cultural background and historical legacies. The IIT is not a universal law. However, it is on a firmer footing than competing explanations. Originality/value – The results contribute both to material and methodological debate on consequences of income inequality.

A growing field of discursive institutionalism has argued for the importance of ideas and discourse in policy changes. The aim of the study is to analyse framing effects empirically by examining how, and to what extent, competing frames can shape public opinion on the implementation of a specific policy change. The case study focuses on the administration of social assistance in Finland. Results indicate that the framing of ideas shapes public opinion. Analyses show that some types of frames are more effective than others. To be successful, a politician must simplify the issue and appeal to moral sentiments rather than present too many difficult ‘factual’ viewpoints. Our study also emphasizes that even frames that succeed in shaping popular opinion may fail if powerful political actors oppose reform. Therefore, we argue that the interplay between the ‘old’ power resource approach and the ‘new’ ideational approach should be taken into account when explaining institutional changes.

This article examines the timing of the introduction of four major social security programmes — work accident insurance, sickness benefits, pensions, and family allowances — in 43 African countries. Further, it explores whether legislative structure, dominant religion or the colonial past of the country is of importance when we control for year of independence, prosperity, degree of democracy, government stability, industrialization and the size and ethnic homogeneity of the population. On the basis of Cox hazard rate modelling it is concluded that industrialized, homogeneous and rather populous countries that were under French rule tend to be pioneers in African social security legislation. issr_1420 73..98

By analysing pension reforms in three Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland and Sweden - that apply different institutional solutions in their old-age security programmes, this article argues that the political processes that shaped the country-specific pension set-ups in the 1950s and 1960s had important ramifications for subsequent reform possibilities. A high degree of inertia exists not only in the institutions themselves but also in the political reform options and the ways in which pensions were reformed. The analysis shows that the 'new politics' was not new in any of the three countries. Furthermore, given the differences in the three cases, the analysis questions the nature of pension reform. The Swedish reform in the late 1990s was a 'big bang' that eliminated the old and changed everything; the Finns built on piecemeal reforms of conversion that gradually changed the whole system; and, while the Danish story appears to be one of stability and status quo, the drift of Danish policy ultimately changed the basic characteristics of the system. Although all three countries have more or less thoroughly reformed their pensions, the reform processes have differed according to both historical legacies and institutional frameworks.

Summary Background Many important social determinants of health are also the focus for social policies. Welfare states contribute to the resources available for their citizens through cash transfer programmes and subsidised services. Although all rich nations have welfare programmes, there are clear cross-national differences with respect to their design and generosity. These differences are evident in national variations in poverty rates, especially among children and elderly people. We investigated to what extent variations in family and pension policies are linked to infant mortality and old-age excess mortality. Methods Infant mortality rates and old-age excess mortality rates were analysed in relation to social policy characteristics and generosity. We did pooled cross-sectional time-series analyses of 18 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries during the period 1970–2000 for family policies and 1950–2000 for pension policies. Findings Increased generosity in family policies that support dual-earner families is linked with lower infant mortality rates, whereas the generosity in family policies that support more traditional families with gainfully employed men and homemaking women is not. An increase by one percentage point in dual-earner support lowers infant mortality by 0·04 deaths per 1000 births. Generosity in basic security type of pensions is linked to lower old-age excess mortality, whereas the generosity of earnings-related income security pensions is not. An increase by one percentage point in basic security pensions is associated with a decrease in the old age excess mortality by 0·02 for men as well as for women. Interpretation The ways in which social policies are designed, as well as their generosity, are important for health because of the increase in resources that social policies entail. Hence, social policies are of major importance for how we can tackle the social determinants of health. Funding Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

In her Work—Lifestyle Choices, Hakim argued that attitudinal factors like work—lifestyle preferences are more important than institutions or structures in explaining female employment. Our aim is to study whether we can substantiate Hakim's preference theory or whether we should lay more emphasis on institutional factors. We ask whether there are systematic differences in attitudes to work and family life as proposed by Hakim. To what extent do the attitudinal dimensions react to institutional variables such as day care and family leave possibilities? What are the relative roles of opinions on family life and working life and traditional sociological variables such as education, income and socio-economic status? How does a spouse's opinion affect women's choices (intra-family attitudinal consistency)? We utilize the International Social Survey Programme data from 2002 and combine it with indicators of the quality of child-care and parental-leave policies in Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Our findings suggest that opinions matter but they are constrained by opportunity structures which are not alike for all women across different countries; opportunities depend not only on structural factors but also on institutional factors, such as the availability of day care. In addition, the opinion of male partners seems to influence women's decisions about employment.

In this paper three methods of relativizations are used: (1) we apply the conventional poverty approach: the poor are those whose income remains below 60 percent of the national equivalent disposable income, (2) we collapse nations together into one data pool and calculate a poverty line for the EU, and (3) we decompose nation states into smaller units representing the poorest and richest areas. Within-nation differences seem to be more pronounced than differences between nations. In the Nordic countries incomes between regions as well as between individuals are more evenly distributed and, consequently, the national means are more representative for the whole countries. Moreover, the Nordic cluster, together with central Europe, is robust against the method of comparison. The method affects the Mediterranean countries. The use of the European poverty line leads to poverty rates two to three times higher than analyses based on national data. The regional variation in these countries is the widest...

Social Policy or Social Structure? Income Transfers, Socio demographic Factors and Poverty in the Nordic Countries and in France The paper compares poverty in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and France. We have (1) descriptive/analytical and (2) methodological goals. (1) We pool the four Nordic countries into a single data set and compare France with this “Scandinavia”. The results give strong evidence to the existence of the homogenous Scandinavian model in terms of incidence of poverty, poverty profiles, and the effectiveness of social policy. (2) The methodological objective is to “change the world” and simulate what would happen if France had the Scandinavian social structure – but its own social policy – and vice versa. Our re-weighting simulations show that the results of the “Scandinavization” of France depend on the method of simulation. First, a static simulation, changing the socio-economic structure, but preserving the present median incomes and poverty lines as they are, would almost eradicate poverty in France. The „Francofication“ of Scandinavia would lead to dramatic results in Scandinavia: the number of persons totally dependent on social transfers would increase, the effectiveness of transfer systems would decrease, and the poverty rate would rise near to the actual French figures. Second, in dynamic simulation we also change poverty lines to correspond actual median income (in “Scandi-France” the median income would rise – because of increased female labor force participation – and in “Franco-Scandinavia” decrease – because of lower female employ-ment). In “Scandi-France” the poverty rate would decrease close to the present Scandinavian figures, but the poor would be richer that the poor actually are in France. In “Franco-Scandinavia” the extension of poverty would be about the same as nowadays but the poor would be worse-off than they now are. In sum, differences in the French and Scandinavian poverty rates are explained by the dynamic interplay between social security and structural variables. However, differences in the family structure and in labor market behavior seem to be more important explanatory factors: about 2/3 of differences between countries are explained by these structural factors, while 1/3 is explained by income transfer systems. However, it is important to remember that these background factors are greatly affected by the institutional set-ups of the welfare states.

This article discusses Chinese social policy development in response to the growth of the market economy. It provides a general overview of the system's evolution in three stages: (1) the pre-reform period when a system of enterprise welfare was in operation; (2) a period of system transition; (3) the stage when state welfare began to take shape. These developmental trends are interpreted on the basis of three types of institutional relations: the State-enterprise relation, the enterprise- (or employer-) employee relation, and the individual/worker-State relation. Moreover, the discussion deals with policy perceptions at each stage of the developmental process. Based on these analyses, it illustrates the transformation of the Chinese social security system in a broad socioeconomic and political context, where China struggled to establish a modern, market-based enterprise system. The paper thus expounds issues of socialism, market forces and the power of organized labour.

Welfare states contribute to people's well-being in many different ways. One way of bringing those contributions under a common metric is in terms of ‘temporal autonomy’: the freedom to spend one's time as one will, outside the necessities of daily life. Using the 1999–2000 Finnish Time Use Survey, we propose ways of operationalising the time that is ‘strictly necessary’ to spend in paid labour, unpaid household labour and personal care; the residual, ‘discretionary time’, represents people's temporal autonomy. We measure the impact on that of Finnish taxes, transfers and child care subsidies. In so doing, we calibrate the contributions of Finland's Nordic welfare regime and of its female-friendly gender regime, in ways that correspond to the lived reality of people's daily lives.

This article traces past and present trends in the institutional development of sickness daily allowance schemes in eighteen OECD countries. We are interested whether there still are—or if there ever have been—distinctive models in sickness benefits. The historical part of the study inspects the development of coverage and generosity benefits. Thereafter the extent to which sickness benefits have been targets for retrenchment will be analysed. The study shows that up until 1985 the Nordic programmes guaranteed better benefits than corporatist schemes, but the situation has since changed, and the Nordic countries do not any longer provide higher compensations. In this respect, these two groups of countries have clearly converged and simultaneously their distance from the countries with basic security or targeted schemes has increased. When it comes to coverage, the Scandinavian schemes have to a great extent preserved their universality, whereas the other groups of countries have lost a bit in their coverage. Thus, in this dimension at least, we can still depict a clear Scandinavian pattern. However, there are indications of convergence towards the corporatist or labour market-based model.

In the wake of Esping-Andersen's and Pierson's landmark publications, comparative welfare state research has revolved around the retrenchment of social policy and the transformation of welfare state regimes. One of the chief problems of these studies is the treatment of time. Very often, changes are incremental and their real impacts are not immediately visible but take years or even decades before the consequences fully materialize. The purpose of this paper is to discuss those incremental processes—that consist of series of smaller “not-system-shifting changes”—which may gradually change central features of a welfare state. Pension programmes, spanning long time periods, provide a good example. Only in some rare cases were pension schemes reformed in one step and in such a way that one can definitely ascertain a system shift. Most changes, however, are gradual, and recurrently enacted minor adjustments seem to leave the basic principles of the scheme intact. In this paper pension reform policies in Germany and Finland will be used to answer the question of when a change is big enough to be labelled as a system shift. It is argued that small “not-system-shifting” changes of the last two decades will eventually alter the basic characteristics of old-age security in both countries.

This paper adapts the Rawlsian idea of decision making behind the veil of ignorance in the realm of income transfer systems. As rational decision makers, we would plan a society where the incidence of poverty is low, differences in the level of living between life cycles are small, income differences between the rich and poor are modest, income mobility from poverty to non-poverty is high, and where the living standard of the poor is decent. The results show that income mobility is not greater in those countries which have wide income differences, nor is the situation of the poor any better in countries with huge income disparities than in other countries. Cross-national comparisons indicate that high poverty rates are not associated with more rapid income mobility and higher standards for the poor.

This article revolves around driving forces behind human actions: self-interest or the common good. Opinions on social policy give support to both approaches. Man is a Faust, torn by conflicting desires and wants. Which of these will be chosen depends on various situational factors that “frame” choices. By utilizing an opinion survey ( n = 1,117), the study analyzes the impacts of “frames” and how the wording of questions affects opinions on the welfare state. The study displays that: (a) Responses to general level questions show a strong commitment to altruistic values; in more specific questions, this altruism tends to fade away, (b) Frames referring to altruistic norms, self interest, and additional information given in the questionnaire have decisive impacts on answers.

A prime objective of welfare state activities is to take action to enhance population health and to decrease mortality risks. For several centuries, poverty has been seen as a key social risk factor in these respects. Consequently, the fight against poverty has historically been at the forefront of public health and social policy. The relationship between relative poverty rates and population health indicators is less self-evident, notwithstanding the obvious similarity to the debated topic of the relationship between population health and income inequality. In this study we undertake a comparative analysis of the relationship between relative poverty and mortality across 26 countries over time, with pooled cross-sectional time series analysis. We utilize data from the Luxembourg Income Study to construct age-specific poverty rates across countries and time covering the period from around 1980 to 2005, merged with data on age- and gender-specific mortality data from the Human Mortality Database. Our results suggest not only an impact of relative poverty but also clear differences by welfare regime that partly goes beyond the well-known differences in poverty rates between welfare regimes.

This study offers a longitudinal scrutiny of the development of pension policy in Finland and evaluates the impacts that the shift from a “marginal” to an “institutional” welfare state imposed on economic well-being among the elderly. The data that are used stem from household budget surveys from 1966 to 1990. During that period, average income of the elderly doubled in real terms, legislated pensions replaced other sources of income, the traditional cycle of poverty, where the elderly had a higher risk of poverty, disappeared, and income differences between the elderly diminished.