This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the ‘dependent variable problem’ in comparative welfare state analysis, by focusing on benefit recipiency as a hitherto mostly neglected type of indicator for understanding cross-national and longitudinal variation between welfare states. The pro’s and con’s of the commonly used indicators of social rights and social expenditure are summarized to act as background for the conceptual and methodological appreciation of the added value of benefit recipiency data. In addition to this we also explore the empirical potentialities of benefit recipiency. We present and discuss the results of analyses of EU-SILC data for the EU 27 countries, where we calculated and compared rates of access to a series of benefits among the working age populations, as well as the relative amounts of benefits received. Our main conclusion is that benefit recipiency data are a promising source for comparative welfare state analysis. As other sources they are not without problems, however, and more work should be done to assess their relative value.
Presented by:
Wim van Oorschot (Leuven University)
Date & time:
January 28, 2013 4:00 pm
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