Carina Schmitt

Explaining convergence of OECD welfare states: a conditional approach

Existing studies have found only limited empirical evidence of welfare state convergence. Moreover, although there are good theoretical reasons both for and against welfare state convergence, there are virtually no studies that have explicitly tested the assumed effects. We argue that the concept of conditional convergence helps to both better describe and explain the phenomenon. By applying error correction models, we examine conditional convergence of various types of social expenditure in 21 OECD countries between 1980 and 2005. Our empirical findings go beyond the existing literature in two respects. First, we show that there is very strong evidence of convergence across all categories of social expenditure when conditional factors are taken into account. Second, we demonstrate that the speed of convergence is highly driven by globalization and European Union membership and shaped by existing welfare state structures.

What Drives the Diffusion of Privatization Policy? Evidence from the Telecommunications Sector

This paper examines the extent to which diffusion mechanisms have been important for the privatization of telecommunications in the OECD world. It analyzes a panel dataset for 18 OECD countries between 1980 and 2007 using spatial econometric techniques. The sample includes 18 OECD countries between 1980 and 2007. The empirical findings strongly suggest that spatial interdependencies are significant for privatization policies. First, closely related countries from a geographical or economic perspective influence each other to a greater extent than non-related countries. Second, there is no evidence that governments adopt policies of countries with a similar cultural background or the policies of those countries where privatization has been shown to lead to the intended economic results at the company level. Third, the importance of diffusion is highly influenced by national characteristics such the openness of the economy.

Partisan Politics and Privatization in OECD Countries

Many scholars have argued that partisan differences have disappeared since the 1980s because of the ever-increasing economic globalization and the deepening of European integration. Using a new primary data set on public ownership that contains detailed information on privatization in 20 countries between 1980 and 2007, we test these claims empirically in relation to state ownership. We pay special attention to the question of whether changes in the international political economy, notably globalization and different aspects of European integration, condition partisan politics. Our empirical findings suggest that political parties have continued to significantly shape national privatization trajectories in line with the classic partisan hypothesis. While partisan differences are somewhat reduced by the liberalizing and market-building efforts of the European Union, globalization does not condition partisan effects. Moreover, the run-up to the European Monetary Union even seems to have reinforced partisan differences.

Panel data analysis and partisan variables: how periodization does influence partisan effects

ABSTRACT One central result of macro-quantitative studies in comparative public policy is that the importance of partisan politics on policy outputs has strongly decreased in recent decades. This finding may well be a methodological artefact. I argue that ad hoc standards in panel data analysis, especially using country-years as periodization, create estimation problems which potentially influence results against partisan variables. Therefore, I propose a simple and straightforward, as well as theoretically suitable, alternative to test the influence of partisan politics on policies and use cabinets instead of country-years. Using comparative welfare state research as an example, I show that partisan effects are strong and stable when using a cabinet-based periodization and fragile and weak within the standard procedure based on annual data. This article aims at suggesting that annual periods do not need to be the best simplification of time in empirical analyses.

Sources of Civic Engagement in Latin America: Empirical Evidence from Rural Ecuadorian Communities

Abstract The concept of civic engagement has greatly influenced the policy-making process in the field of development cooperation. However, in contrast to a vast quantity of empirical studies for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)–world, there is only little knowledge with respect to developing countries. Using Ecuadorian rural communities as an example, this paper analyses socioeconomic, political and cultural sources of civic engagement with multivariate regression analyses, which demonstrate that volunteering strongly depends on the cultural tradition. Additionally, the empirical results show that a pure application of the theoretical assumptions and operationalisations from the OECD–world is misleading, when analysing social processes in developing countries.

Constitutional Barriers and the Privatization of Public Utilities in Rich Democracies

This paper examines the impact of constitutional barriers on the privatization of public utilities in 21 OECD-countries between 1980 and 2008. We present new and improved indicators for privatization and constitutional barriers. Three empirical findings stand out: first, national privatization trajectories differ across both countries and sectors. Second, there is a significant cross-national variation in terms of constitutional provisions related to public utilities which, thirdly, constitute important impediments to privatization.

The Global Emergence of Social Protection

Comparative welfare state research is directed mainly toward the development of welfare states in advanced democracies, although the majority of people live outside the OECD and often face graver social risks arising from poverty and starvation. To secure a minimum standard of living, nearly all countries have introduced social programs to protect their citizens. Yet the timing of when governments take on the responsibility of providing social protection varies decisively across the world. Using data for 177 territories and independent states over the period from 1820 to 2013, we illustrate how social security legislation has emerged throughout the world. Although we find that the patterns and pathways vary strongly between different regions, the evidence shows that the proliferation of social protection is a transnational event: regional diffusion and membership in the International Labour Organization matter irrespective of the regional and temporal context.

Trade liberalization and the global expansion of modern taxes

ABSTRACT For a long time, governments relied heavily on trade taxes as the main source of public finance, and for some countries, mainly less developed ones, they still account for a large share of revenue. Yet, with trade liberalization, governments have been forced to abandon these easy-to-collect taxes and to adopt modern hard-to-collect taxes, mainly internal income and consumption taxes. Surprisingly, we know little about how governments across the world have addressed this common challenge. In this paper, we analyze the rise of the most important present taxes: the personal and corporate income tax, the general sales tax and the value-added tax. Based on a self-coded dataset, we provide a historical-descriptive outline of the expansion of modern taxes since 1842 and test the effect of trade liberalization on the probability to adopt hard(er)-to-collect taxes. While trade is an important determinant for the legislation of modern taxes, we find that its influence is not universal but depends on the tax type. Only the personal income tax and the value-added tax have served as a revenue substitution to trade taxes, while the general sales tax and the corporate income tax were rather fueled by other factors such as spending pressures.

Spatial interdependencies and welfare state generosity in Western democracies, 1960–2000

For many years comparative welfare state research has been afflicted with a sort of methodological nationalism in the sense that countries were treated as independent units. In line with the recent ‘spatial turn’ in comparative public policy studies, this paper examines with regard to three welfare state programmes whether, in the post-war period, the provision of social rights in 18 Western democracies was shaped by benefit generosity in other countries. We show that diffusion is present but varies by programme and over time. Rather surprisingly, we find that policy diffusion was particularly relevant during the Golden Age.

The impact of the Second World War on postwar social spending

The huge quantitative literature on postwar social spending almost entirely neglected war asa possible explanatory factor of social spending dynamics. Given the mass carnage and the enormoussocial needs caused by the Second World War, this is quite astonishing. This article examines for the rsttime, whether, and in what ways, the Second World War affected cross-national differences in public socialspending of 18 Western welfare states over the course of the Golden Age. Using panel regressions, it is foundthat the war strongly affected social spending until the late 1960s.The evidence demonstrates that the SecondWorld War is not simply a temporal watershed structuring different phases of welfare state development, butrather a crucial factor for understanding cross-national differences in welfare efforts and social expendituredynamics in the postwar period.