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Joakim Palme

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Papers by Joakim Palme

Free Movement and European Welfare States: Why Child Benefits for EU Workers Should Not Be Exportable

Social Science Research Network, 2022

The regulation of the free movement of workers in the European Union (EU), and specifically EU (m... more The regulation of the free movement of workers in the European Union (EU), and specifically EU (migrant) workers' access to welfare benefits in the host country, has generated considerable political conflicts within and across EU Member States in recent years. These conflicts have the potential to threaten the future political sustainability of unrestricted intra-EU labour mobility and broader processes of European integration. In this paper, we provide an institutional analysis of one specific issue that has been at the heart of these debates: the exportability of child benefits. Under the current EU rules, 'EU workers' (i.e. mobile EU citizens who live and work in a Member State where they do not hold national citizenship) can "export" family benefits to their children and other family members resident in the home country. A number of EU countries have demanded a change to these rules. We argue that the political conflicts about exporting child benefits are, at least in part, due to a fundamental tension between the 'employment-based' institutional logic that regulates EU workers' access to child and family benefits and the 'residence-based' institutional logic that underpins family policy in all Member States. To reduce this tension, we make the case for changing the principles for coordinating EU workers' access to welfare benefits, which would mean, as a consequence, that the exportability of child benefits would no longer apply. It is the country where the child lives, rather than the country where the working parent/spouse ('breadwinner') is employed that should bear the responsibility for providing child benefits.

Welfare state entry and exit over the life course : Employment and the sustainability of the welfare state in different worlds of welfare

Politics of generational welfare contracts

The Generational Welfare Contract

References: Justice, Institutions and Outcomes

Introduction : making linkages between research, public debates, and policies on international migration and integration

International migration and integration are among the most important and controversial public pol... more International migration and integration are among the most important and controversial public policy issues of our time. The disconnect between migration policy debates and migration realities has prompted a quest for more ‘evidence-based’ debates and policy-making. This introductory chapter gives the background and explains the rationale, aims, and key contributions of the book Bridging the Gaps: Linking Research to Public Debates and Policy-Making on International Migration and Integration. It provides a basic conceptual framework for the theoretical and empirical analysis in the subsequent chapters, focusing on the triangular relationships between research, public debates, and policy-making. The chapter also includes an overview of the key insights and arguments of the theoretical reflections, case studies, and policy analyses in the book

National Institutions and the Fiscal Effects of EU Migrants

This paper analyses whether and how the fiscal effects of EU migrants vary across European countr... more This paper analyses whether and how the fiscal effects of EU migrants vary across European countries with different institutional regimes. In public debates on free movement, it is often claimed that different national institutions, especially welfare states and labour market regulations, lead to variations in the fiscal impacts of EU migrants across European countries. There are also some theoretical reasons why one might expect this to be the case, although the multidimensionality of national institutional configurations makes it difficult to formulate strong theoretical expectations. This paper is, to the best of our knowledge, the first crosscountry empirical analysis of these issues. Distinguishing between five different institutional regimes covering 29 countries, our analysis of the links between national institutions and the fiscal effects of EU migrants is made possible by a unique new data set on the fiscal effects of EU migrants across almost all EEA countries (Nyman and Ahlskog 2018). Our findings suggest that the main cross-regime difference in the net fiscal impacts of EU migrants can be found between the "State insurance regime" in East European countries and the other four ("Western") regimes in the EU15 countries plus Switzerland, Malta, Norway, and Iceland. The fiscal contribution of EU migrants in the Western regimes is significantly higher than in the State insurance regime. We do not find any evidence of statistically significant differences in the fiscal impacts of EU migrants across Western regimes, despite the fact that some of these regimes, e.g. the "Basic security regime" (in Ireland, the UK, and Malta) and the "Universal regime" (in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), are often depicted as diametrically opposed in terms of welfare state and labour market institutions. In other words, we do not find any evidence in support of the common idea that migrants generate a greater fiscal burden in more generous welfare states. To help explain these results, we run a range of regression models that add country-level and individual-level controls (such as the country's fiscal balance and EU migrants' employment status and age) to the analysis of the links between institutions and fiscal effects, which allows us to "decompose" the fiscal effects of EU migrants in different institutional regimes.

Towards a European Social Model? Trends in Social Insurance among EU countries 1980-2000. Submitted to European Societies

ABSTRACT: The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economi... more ABSTRACT: The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economic constraints on the Member States. This has been expected to induce convergence of social policies, generally in a downward direction. At the same time the notion of a European Social Model has been launched as a strategy to make marketization socially acceptable, pointing to a development in a different direction. This paper examines key aspects of the development of the main social insurance programs during the period 19802000 in 14 EU Member States. Are there significant signs of convergence in the replacement rates of social insurance programs and do broader development trends of the social insurance systems indicate converging institutional models? The results indicate divergence rather than convergence of social insurance replacement rates. In terms of institutional models there is no evidence of a common European Social Model in the area of social insurance over the past decades....

The health penalty of single parents in institutional context

The triple bind of single-parent families, 2018

Var tredje träffar inte ena föräldern : Dagens Nyheter

Preface: Justice, Institutions and Outcomes

The research carried out in this book originates from a collaborative research project that we in... more The research carried out in this book originates from a collaborative research project that we initiated in 2011. Although this book has been a long time in the making, it could hardly have been timelier. Generational perspectives on justice, institutions and outcomes in welfare states are more topical than ever. In our pursuit of the book project, we were helped by several external research grants. Most importantly, we received a three-year project grant from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) on "Generational welfare contracts in transition: just institutions and outcomes in Sweden and other countries" (no. 2010-0336). We also benefited from the financial support of another FORTE project on "Changing social policy and income inequality: Sweden in comparative perspective" (no. 2012-0995), and a project financed by the Swedish Research Council on "Global economic crisis, institutional change and inequality in comparative perspective: changing Western welfare states and labor markets since the global financial crisis of 2008" (no. 2012-5503). Several colleagues provided useful comments on different parts of the book.

Robin Hood, Matteus eller strikt likhet? : En jämförande studie av välfärdsstatens institutioner och strategier för att minska ojämlikhet och fattigdom i västländerna

Sociologisk Forskning, 1999

Robin Hood, Matteus or strict equality. A comparative study of welfare state institutions and str... more Robin Hood, Matteus or strict equality. A comparative study of welfare state institutions and strategies to decrease inequality and poverty in the rich industrialized countries.How can we best reduce poverty and inequality? The debate on this question has raised other controversial issues: Should social policies be targeted to low-income groups or universal? Should benefits be equal for all or earnings-related? To answer these questions it is necessary to make three policy-relevant considerations: Firstly, the size of redistributive budgets is not fixed but reflects the structure of welfare state institutions. Secondly, there tends to be a tradeoff between the degree of low income targeting and the size of redistributive budgets. Thirdly, outcomes of market-based distribution are often even more unequal than those of earnings-related social insurance programs. However, traditional arguments in favor of targeting and flat-rate benefits, focusing on the distribution of the money actua...

The Universal Decline of Universality

Rättighetsbärare eller problembärare? Barns rätt att komma till tals och socialtjänstens insatser

Rattighetsbarare eller problembarare? Barns ratt att komma till tals och socialtjanstens insatser

The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database

International Journal of Social Welfare, 2020

The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database provides the foundations for new comparative and lon... more The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database provides the foundations for new comparative and longitudinal research on the causes behind, and the consequences of, welfare states and social citizenship rights. The SPIN database is oriented towards analyses of institutions as manifested in social policy legislation. To date, SPIN covers 40 countries, of which several have data on core social policy programmes from 1930. There are currently six data modules in SPIN, covering different social policy areas. The following research note describes the theoretical and conceptual basis of the SPIN project, as well as the data it contains.

A Normative Foundation for the Social Investment Approach?

Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017

The SIA has been criticized for its productivist view of social policy and one-sided emphasis on ... more The SIA has been criticized for its productivist view of social policy and one-sided emphasis on economic returns. Indeed, it is fair to say that the social dimension of social investment has been paid lip service both in terms of policy developments and in academic research. In fact, it may be that one of the weaknesses of the SIA is its lack of clear normative underpinning or theory of social justice against which to develop a well-founded evaluative framework for assessing the quality of social policies and social arrangements both for society as a whole and from the life perspective of individuals. This contribution discusses the possible relevance of the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen, both in developing a normative framework for social investment, but also in developing indicators for assessing social outcomes, and for analysing how different institutional arrangements support or hinder agency and capabilities.

Global ekonomisk kris, institutionell förändring och ojämlikhet i komparativt perspektiv: förändrade välfärdsstater och välfärdsmarknader i västvärlden sedan den globala finanskrisen 2008

Income distribution in Sweden

The Japanese Journal of Social Security Policy, 2006

Social Rights, Structural Needs and Social Expenditure: A Comparative Study of 18 OECD Countries 1960–2000

Investigating Welfare State Change, 2007

ABSTRACT

Protection sociale et lutte contre les inégalités : le modèle scandinave

L Économie politique, 2002

A welfare balance sheet for the 1990s. Final report of the Swedish Welfare Commission

Scandinavian journal of public health. Supplement, 2003

Free Movement and European Welfare States: Why Child Benefits for EU Workers Should Not Be Exportable

Social Science Research Network, 2022

The regulation of the free movement of workers in the European Union (EU), and specifically EU (m... more The regulation of the free movement of workers in the European Union (EU), and specifically EU (migrant) workers' access to welfare benefits in the host country, has generated considerable political conflicts within and across EU Member States in recent years. These conflicts have the potential to threaten the future political sustainability of unrestricted intra-EU labour mobility and broader processes of European integration. In this paper, we provide an institutional analysis of one specific issue that has been at the heart of these debates: the exportability of child benefits. Under the current EU rules, 'EU workers' (i.e. mobile EU citizens who live and work in a Member State where they do not hold national citizenship) can "export" family benefits to their children and other family members resident in the home country. A number of EU countries have demanded a change to these rules. We argue that the political conflicts about exporting child benefits are, at least in part, due to a fundamental tension between the 'employment-based' institutional logic that regulates EU workers' access to child and family benefits and the 'residence-based' institutional logic that underpins family policy in all Member States. To reduce this tension, we make the case for changing the principles for coordinating EU workers' access to welfare benefits, which would mean, as a consequence, that the exportability of child benefits would no longer apply. It is the country where the child lives, rather than the country where the working parent/spouse ('breadwinner') is employed that should bear the responsibility for providing child benefits.

Welfare state entry and exit over the life course : Employment and the sustainability of the welfare state in different worlds of welfare

Politics of generational welfare contracts

The Generational Welfare Contract

References: Justice, Institutions and Outcomes

Introduction : making linkages between research, public debates, and policies on international migration and integration

International migration and integration are among the most important and controversial public pol... more International migration and integration are among the most important and controversial public policy issues of our time. The disconnect between migration policy debates and migration realities has prompted a quest for more ‘evidence-based’ debates and policy-making. This introductory chapter gives the background and explains the rationale, aims, and key contributions of the book Bridging the Gaps: Linking Research to Public Debates and Policy-Making on International Migration and Integration. It provides a basic conceptual framework for the theoretical and empirical analysis in the subsequent chapters, focusing on the triangular relationships between research, public debates, and policy-making. The chapter also includes an overview of the key insights and arguments of the theoretical reflections, case studies, and policy analyses in the book

National Institutions and the Fiscal Effects of EU Migrants

This paper analyses whether and how the fiscal effects of EU migrants vary across European countr... more This paper analyses whether and how the fiscal effects of EU migrants vary across European countries with different institutional regimes. In public debates on free movement, it is often claimed that different national institutions, especially welfare states and labour market regulations, lead to variations in the fiscal impacts of EU migrants across European countries. There are also some theoretical reasons why one might expect this to be the case, although the multidimensionality of national institutional configurations makes it difficult to formulate strong theoretical expectations. This paper is, to the best of our knowledge, the first crosscountry empirical analysis of these issues. Distinguishing between five different institutional regimes covering 29 countries, our analysis of the links between national institutions and the fiscal effects of EU migrants is made possible by a unique new data set on the fiscal effects of EU migrants across almost all EEA countries (Nyman and Ahlskog 2018). Our findings suggest that the main cross-regime difference in the net fiscal impacts of EU migrants can be found between the "State insurance regime" in East European countries and the other four ("Western") regimes in the EU15 countries plus Switzerland, Malta, Norway, and Iceland. The fiscal contribution of EU migrants in the Western regimes is significantly higher than in the State insurance regime. We do not find any evidence of statistically significant differences in the fiscal impacts of EU migrants across Western regimes, despite the fact that some of these regimes, e.g. the "Basic security regime" (in Ireland, the UK, and Malta) and the "Universal regime" (in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), are often depicted as diametrically opposed in terms of welfare state and labour market institutions. In other words, we do not find any evidence in support of the common idea that migrants generate a greater fiscal burden in more generous welfare states. To help explain these results, we run a range of regression models that add country-level and individual-level controls (such as the country's fiscal balance and EU migrants' employment status and age) to the analysis of the links between institutions and fiscal effects, which allows us to "decompose" the fiscal effects of EU migrants in different institutional regimes.

Towards a European Social Model? Trends in Social Insurance among EU countries 1980-2000. Submitted to European Societies

ABSTRACT: The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economi... more ABSTRACT: The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economic constraints on the Member States. This has been expected to induce convergence of social policies, generally in a downward direction. At the same time the notion of a European Social Model has been launched as a strategy to make marketization socially acceptable, pointing to a development in a different direction. This paper examines key aspects of the development of the main social insurance programs during the period 19802000 in 14 EU Member States. Are there significant signs of convergence in the replacement rates of social insurance programs and do broader development trends of the social insurance systems indicate converging institutional models? The results indicate divergence rather than convergence of social insurance replacement rates. In terms of institutional models there is no evidence of a common European Social Model in the area of social insurance over the past decades....

The health penalty of single parents in institutional context

The triple bind of single-parent families, 2018

Var tredje träffar inte ena föräldern : Dagens Nyheter

Preface: Justice, Institutions and Outcomes

The research carried out in this book originates from a collaborative research project that we in... more The research carried out in this book originates from a collaborative research project that we initiated in 2011. Although this book has been a long time in the making, it could hardly have been timelier. Generational perspectives on justice, institutions and outcomes in welfare states are more topical than ever. In our pursuit of the book project, we were helped by several external research grants. Most importantly, we received a three-year project grant from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) on "Generational welfare contracts in transition: just institutions and outcomes in Sweden and other countries" (no. 2010-0336). We also benefited from the financial support of another FORTE project on "Changing social policy and income inequality: Sweden in comparative perspective" (no. 2012-0995), and a project financed by the Swedish Research Council on "Global economic crisis, institutional change and inequality in comparative perspective: changing Western welfare states and labor markets since the global financial crisis of 2008" (no. 2012-5503). Several colleagues provided useful comments on different parts of the book.

Robin Hood, Matteus eller strikt likhet? : En jämförande studie av välfärdsstatens institutioner och strategier för att minska ojämlikhet och fattigdom i västländerna

Sociologisk Forskning, 1999

Robin Hood, Matteus or strict equality. A comparative study of welfare state institutions and str... more Robin Hood, Matteus or strict equality. A comparative study of welfare state institutions and strategies to decrease inequality and poverty in the rich industrialized countries.How can we best reduce poverty and inequality? The debate on this question has raised other controversial issues: Should social policies be targeted to low-income groups or universal? Should benefits be equal for all or earnings-related? To answer these questions it is necessary to make three policy-relevant considerations: Firstly, the size of redistributive budgets is not fixed but reflects the structure of welfare state institutions. Secondly, there tends to be a tradeoff between the degree of low income targeting and the size of redistributive budgets. Thirdly, outcomes of market-based distribution are often even more unequal than those of earnings-related social insurance programs. However, traditional arguments in favor of targeting and flat-rate benefits, focusing on the distribution of the money actua...

The Universal Decline of Universality

Rättighetsbärare eller problembärare? Barns rätt att komma till tals och socialtjänstens insatser

Rattighetsbarare eller problembarare? Barns ratt att komma till tals och socialtjanstens insatser

The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database

International Journal of Social Welfare, 2020

The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database provides the foundations for new comparative and lon... more The Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database provides the foundations for new comparative and longitudinal research on the causes behind, and the consequences of, welfare states and social citizenship rights. The SPIN database is oriented towards analyses of institutions as manifested in social policy legislation. To date, SPIN covers 40 countries, of which several have data on core social policy programmes from 1930. There are currently six data modules in SPIN, covering different social policy areas. The following research note describes the theoretical and conceptual basis of the SPIN project, as well as the data it contains.

A Normative Foundation for the Social Investment Approach?

Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017

The SIA has been criticized for its productivist view of social policy and one-sided emphasis on ... more The SIA has been criticized for its productivist view of social policy and one-sided emphasis on economic returns. Indeed, it is fair to say that the social dimension of social investment has been paid lip service both in terms of policy developments and in academic research. In fact, it may be that one of the weaknesses of the SIA is its lack of clear normative underpinning or theory of social justice against which to develop a well-founded evaluative framework for assessing the quality of social policies and social arrangements both for society as a whole and from the life perspective of individuals. This contribution discusses the possible relevance of the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen, both in developing a normative framework for social investment, but also in developing indicators for assessing social outcomes, and for analysing how different institutional arrangements support or hinder agency and capabilities.

Global ekonomisk kris, institutionell förändring och ojämlikhet i komparativt perspektiv: förändrade välfärdsstater och välfärdsmarknader i västvärlden sedan den globala finanskrisen 2008

Income distribution in Sweden

The Japanese Journal of Social Security Policy, 2006

Social Rights, Structural Needs and Social Expenditure: A Comparative Study of 18 OECD Countries 1960–2000

Investigating Welfare State Change, 2007

ABSTRACT

Protection sociale et lutte contre les inégalités : le modèle scandinave

L Économie politique, 2002

A welfare balance sheet for the 1990s. Final report of the Swedish Welfare Commission

Scandinavian journal of public health. Supplement, 2003