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Publication

Welfare state decommodification

Book - Report

Subtitle:concepts, operationalizations and long-term trends
Welfare state decommodification is one of the central concepts in the comparative study of welfare states. Mainstream literature on the subject has however two important shortcomings: (1) it neglects the decommodifying potential of labour market institutions (in-work decommodification) and (2) it is mainly occupied with cross-national variation not longitudinal change. This paper presents indicators of benefit decommodification and in-work decommodification as to determine whether long-term trends exist going back to the early 1980s. On the whole, no generic trends are found, but some clear country clusters can be distinguished. Most remarkable is the substantial recommodification in most Nordic countries and the Netherlands. The Anglo-Saxon EU member states on the other hand are characterized by increasing welfare state decommodification since the mid-1980s, following a short period of substantial retrenchment in the early 1980s. In sum, we find indications of modest convergence, especially among EU countries. Besides, we observe that high benefit decommodification is consistent with high in-work decommodification although the longitudinal relationship is less outspoken.
Series: CSB working paper / University
Number of pages: 34
Publication year:2012
Keywords:Minutes and reports
Accessibility:Open