Changing Social Investment Strategies in the EU

Sara Baiocco, Cinzia Alcidi (), Francesco Corti () and Mattia Di Salvo ()
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Francesco Corti: University of Milan; Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Mattia Di Salvo: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

No 2022-01, JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: This article attempts to identify social investment strategies across EU countries and explain their evolution over the period 2004-18, by using cluster analysis on expenditure and coverage variables and qualitative analysis on selected policy areas to contextualize the results. It finds that strategies have diversified over time in a progressively complex way. After the financial crisis, three main social investment strategies emerge in Europe. They do not overlap with canonical welfare state models, nor have a clear-cut geographical connotation. The strategies are distinct because of their different levels of overall expenditure on social investment but, over time, also by their different life-course orientations. Significant variation within the clusters, in terms of both expenditure and design of social investment policies, indicates that fully-fledged strategies have not yet formed in well-defined groups of countries.

Keywords: Social investment; cluster analysis; welfare state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2022-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipt:laedte:202201

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