Moira Nelson

Making marketswith active labor market policies: the influence of political parties, welfare state regimes, and economic change on spending on different types of policies

Active labor market policies consist of a diverse set of policy tools with which to address joblessness and the degree to which governments invest in various policies as a response to rising unemployment varies widely. Fleshing out the determinants by policy type holds the promise of illuminating more clearly contestation over activation. To this end, this study analyzes the role of partisanship as well as welfare state regimes and the economy on spending patterns. We begin by detailing a theoretical framework for understanding variation in active labor market policies. Bonoli categorizes active labor market policies according to their market orientation and emphasis on human capital investment. In a study of social service reforms, Gingrich explains how all parties employ market-based reforms to empower some groups over others. These theories are then used to derive partisan hypotheses for direct job creation, training, labor market services, and employment incentives. Hypotheses for the four main types of active labor market policies are tested with regression analysis of 22 countries between 1985 and 2008. High spending on direct job creation, a non-market oriented policy type, is marginally significantly higher in the social democratic regime and by left governments prior to the activation turn. Left parties spend significantly more than other parties on training policies and after the activation turn these policies also become a distinct feature of the social democratic welfare state regime. The same trend exists for employment incentives. Center-right parties and those within the Christian democratic regime also spend marginally significantly higher on training policies before the activation turn, which is explained by results for deindustrialization. No partisan or regime effects are found for labor market services, which supports the view that all countries rely on these policies. The literature also suggests that a composite measure masks political conflict since this policy type encompasses diverse policies. Keywords: activation; active labor market polies (Less)

Credit-Claiming or Blame Avoidance? Comparing the Relationship between Welfare State Beliefs and the Framing of Social Policy Retrenchment in France and Germany

Abstract This study aims to theorize more concretely the micro-foundations of reform strategies with attention to the role of would-be reform winners in motivating strategy choice. The theory incorporates insights about multidimensional preferences into Weaver’s framework and builds on a growing literature on the framing of welfare state change in order to hypothesize that governments may face a vote-seeking incentive to justify retrenchment by appealing to aspects of the reform that their voters support. Recognizing the political relevance of a pro-retrenchment constituency sheds light on unappreciated political dynamics of welfare state retreat. Illustrative case studies of France and Germany provide insights into the relationship between voter preferences and the political strategies.

From Perspectives to Policy Contingencies: conditional cash transfers as social investments

Despite the popularity of social investment, there remain ambiguities regarding how to design an effective social investment approach. We review evaluations of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in Latin America in order to draw out lessons of how to improve the effectiveness of social investment. CCTs share many of the objectives of the social investment approach and are targeted at poorer groups. Since research shows that such groups are often not adequately supported through social investment policies, analyzing CCTs holds particular promise. Our analysis finds that architects of social investment policies should consider three questions when designing a social investment approach: how much investment is necessary to fulfill social investment functions, what is the causal mechanism through which the goals of social investment are to be achieved, and what array of policies are necessary for such mechanisms to be effective?

Quantifying 'Conditionality': A New Database on Conditions and Sanctions for Unemployment Benefit Claimants

This paper describes our new dataset on conditionality requirements for unemployment benet claimants. Even though the past three decades have witnessed extensive eorts in quantifying social rights, conditionality remains relatively unexamined, with only a handful of excellent though incomplete studies assembling comparative data on how states delimit and enforce the job search behavior of the unemployed. We build on these studies with the goal of collecting data for 22 countries between 1980 and 2011. In this paper we explain the relevance of the dataset for the study of welfare state change, discuss measurement issues, and present data for ve countries: France, Germany, South Korea, Austria, and the United Kingdom.

Skills Training: Public Policy Aspects

This article describes factors influencing investments in skills training as well as related outcomes in terms of participation rates and benefits on an individual and societal level. Market mechanisms largely drive human capital investments. According to this logic, workers and employers conduct a cost–benefit analysis, weighing expected payoffs against expected costs and investing accordingly. At the same time, market failures and collective action problems may occur in the provision of training. Various policies and institutions have been shown to resolve such problems and boost training. Whereas participation rates vary widely by firm characteristics, high rates of participation help countries specialize in high-quality production and achieve high job satisfaction.

The Origins of Active Social Policy: Labour Market and Childcare Policies in a Comparative Perspective

Since the mid-1990s European welfare states have undergone a major transformation. Relative to the post-war years, today they put less emphasis on income protection and more on the promotion of labour market participation. This book investigates this transformation by focusing on two fields of social policy: active labour market policy and childcare. Throughout Europe, governments have invested massively in these two areas. The result, a more active welfare state, seems a rather solid achievement, likely to survive the turbulent post-crisis years. Why? Case studies of policy trajectories in seven European countries and advanced statistical analysis of spending figures suggest that the shift towards an active social policy is only in part a response to a changed economic environment. Political competition, and particularly the extent to which active social policy can be used for credit claiming purposes, help us understand the peculiar cross-national pattern of social policy reorientation. This book, by trying to understand the shift towards an active welfare state, provides also an update of political science theories of social policy making.

Nuanced negative result reporting.

A. Franco, N. Malhotra, and G. Simonovits (“Publication bias in the social sciences: Unlocking the file drawer,” Reports, 19 September, p. [1502][1]) present convincing evidence of publication bias in the social sciences. Encouraging publication of negative results will indeed benefit the