| 1. |
- Bergmark, Åke, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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A safety net for all? – Vignette-based assessments of Swedish social assistance over three decades
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish welfare is often characterized as comprehensive and generous. Social assistance constitutes the final safety net in the Swedish model. Unlike most other benefits, eligibility and subsidy levels are here subject to extensive means-testing, with eligibility determined by individual caseworkers. In this article, we explore the extent to which eligibility determination and generosity of benefits have changed in social assistance assessments over three decades, relating these to changes in regulations over the same period.The article presents data from three independent vignette studies conducted in the mid-1990s, mid-2000s and in 2018 respectively. The data consist of assessments of a total of six vignettes, made by individual caseworkers (n=1 337). The results indicate that overall generosity in social assistance has decreased considerably over the last 25 years and that, despite both national and local initiatives to reduce individual variation in assessments, disparities have instead increased.
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| 2. |
- Blomqvist, Paula, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Have the Welfare Professions Lost Autonomy? : A Comparative Study of Doctors and Teachers
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 53:1, s. 64-85
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article investigates the impact of NPM reforms on two prominent welfare state professions; medical doctors and teachers. The case study context is Sweden, where the impact of NPM led to a series of reforms in health care and education after 1990. The focus in the paper is on professional autonomy, which can be seen as a core trait in professional work. The findings in the article point to both medical doctors and teachers having lost professional autonomy as a result of NPM-reforms, particularly with regards to the dimensions of work organization and evaluation. Autonomy in individual decision-making seems to have been least affected, even if there are indications of this being infringed upon as well. Despite these broad similarities, the loss of autonomy is found to be more pronounced in the case of teachers. One reason behind this difference, which manifests itself in teachers having become subject to higher level of direct administrative control by school managers while at the same time experiencing a more distinct loss of autonomy to evaluate their work, appears to be that medical doctors have been more successful in establishing themselves as experts in relation to new public audit agencies.
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| 3. |
- Borevi, Karin, 1968-
(författare)
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Scandinavian Approaches to Begging as a Policy Problem and the Double Insider/Outsider Status of Marginalized Intra-EU Migrants
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 52:2, s. 276-293
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present article investigates how begging performed by citizens of new EU-member states in Eastern Europe was debated in parliaments in Denmark, Sweden and Norway during the period 2007–2017. The empirical analysis shows significant cross-country divergences: In Denmark, efforts targeted controlling migration, either directly or indirectly, via various deterrence strategies. In Sweden, the emphasis was rather on alleviating social needs while migrants reside in the country and trying to decrease their incentives to migrate in the first place by ameliorating conditions in sending countries. In Norway, one predominant framing revolved around the issue of human trafficking of beggars. Despite substantial differences, the analyses show a gradual shift in a similar direction in all three countries. While a social frame was initially more commonly understood as the appropriate way to approach begging, over time a criminal frame has gained ground in all three countries. The article argues that this development must be understood in light of marginalized intra-EU migrants’ legal status as both insiders and outsiders in the Scandinavian welfare states. Due to these individuals’ “in-between status”, neither conventional social policy nor immigration control measures are perceived as available, making policymakers more prone to turn to criminal policy tools.
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| 4. |
- Byun, Young-hwan, 1979-
(författare)
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Welfare Expansion without Inequality Reduction : Institutional Explanation of Old-Age Poverty in Korea
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 53:2, s. 491-511
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Old-age poverty in Korea remains exceptionally high among OECD countries despite a significant expansion in pension expenditure. This article presents an institutional explanation for such a puzzle. Using ‘targeting within universalism’ as the analytic framework, this study examines the institutional effects of pension models on old-age poverty in Korea. Firstly, comparative analysis finds that universal provision of pensions negatively affects old-age poverty independent of the expenditure size, identifying Korean pensions as the least universal among OECD countries. Secondly, institutional analysis of the Korean pension system explains why the expenditure growth left a large share of the elderly with no or a partial pension. Finally, microsimulation analysis examines alternative assistance pension models for their potential to alter poverty outcomes. Strikingly, universal models alleviate old-age poverty more cost-effectively than the extant targeting model, questioning the efficiency-based justification for low-income targeting. In particular, the universal floor model appears to be the most effective, allowing greater benefits to the poorer without a means test. Even for assistance benefits, universal models may better remedy poverty under such conditions as low take-up among the needy, prevalence of low-income incidence, and pro-rich distribution of extant social transfers.
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| 5. |
- Bäckman, Olof, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Combating Child Poverty? A Multilevel Assessment of Links Between Family Policy Institutions in 20 Countries
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 39:2, s. 275-296
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study analyses the links between family policy institutions and poverty in households with pre-school children in 21 old and new welfare democracies. New institutional information which enables a separation of different family policy dimensions is combined with micro data from the Luxembourg Income Study. Through statistical multilevel modelling, individual- and country-level data are combined in a simultaneous analysis of their relationships to child poverty risks. The results show that family policy transfers are related to lower child poverty risks at the micro level. However, the mechanisms by which such transfers reduce poverty vary by type of family support. Support to dual-earner families operates by enabling both parents to work and raise market income, while support to more traditional family structures in some instances has a more direct effect on poverty risks. The analysis also renders support to the hypothesis that dual-earner transfers also alleviate poverty most effectively among single-mother households.
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| 6. |
- Cronert, Axel, 1986-
(författare)
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Varieties of Employment Subsidy Design : Theory and Evidence from Across Europe
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 48:4, s. 839-859
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Employment subsidy programs have experienced considerable expansion across Europe in recent decades. To date, most studies analyzing this policy shift have assumed that these programs are largely equivalent in terms of their designs, effects, and explanations. In contrast, this article argues that employment subsidies are best understood as versatile multi-purpose tools that can be used as means to rather different distributional ends. Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis to explore novel data from hundreds of employment subsidy programs across Europe, this article develops a new typology based on two overarching trade-offs. The typology highlights that employment subsidies may be designed to counteract as well as to sustain insider/outsider divides in the labor market, and that they may be designed to tackle either structural or cyclical labor market problems. In a first empirical evaluation of the typology, programs with different designs are found to vary systematically in terms of distributional outcomes and starting conditions.
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| 7. |
- Drange, Ida, et al.
(författare)
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Incentive Effects of Cash Benefits among Young People : A Natural Experiment from Norway
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 48:1, s. 107-125
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prior research on active labour market programmes (ALMPs) for young people has revealed either no effect or negative effects on transition rates into employment. In addition to accessing the programme content, participation in ALMPs bestows the right to a supplementary benefit. Yet, the direct effect of this benefit on the use and outcome of ALMPs remains largely unknown. We study the effects of a Norwegian policy that pays much higher benefits to recipients when they reach 19 years of age. This policy provides a natural experimental setting that allows us to utilise the age discontinuity to observe whether young people are more likely to become benefit recipients after their nineteenth birthday, and to estimate the effect of benefits on the labour supply. As age determines the increase in benefits rather than need, it creates a random and exogenous variation in the criteria for allocating cash benefits. We use Norwegian administrative register data that cover all 18 to 19 year olds during the period 2003 to 2012. We find no effect on programme take-up or employment rates. Hence, benefits do not work against the aim of ALMPs and young people's responsiveness to financial incentives cannot explain such programmes’ lack of effects.
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| 10. |
- Harlock, Jenny, et al.
(författare)
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Doing more with less in health care : Findings from a multi-method study of decommissioning in the English National Health Service
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 47:3, s. 543-564
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the context of an austere financial climate, local health care budget holders are increasingly expected to make and enact decisions to decommission (reduce or stop providing) services. However, little is currently known about the experiences of those seeking to decommission. This paper presents the first national study of decommissioning in the English National Health Service drawing on multiple methods, including: an interview-based review of the contemporary policy landscape of health care decommissioning; a national online survey of commissioners of health care services responsible for managing and enacting budget allocation decisions locally; and illustrative vignettes provided by those who have led decommissioning activities. Findings are presented and discussed in relation to four themes: national-local relationships; organisational capacity and resources for decommissioning; the extent and nature of decommissioning; and intended outcomes of decommissioning. Whilst it is unlikely that local commissioners will be able to ‘successfully’ implement decommissioning decisions unless aspects of engagement, local context and outcomes are addressed, it remains unclear what ‘success’ looks like in terms of a decommissioning process.
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