Ratio Working Papers
No 101:
Explaining Welfare State Survival: The Role of Economic Freedom and Globalization
Andreas Bergh ()
Abstract: Using the economic freedom index and the newly developed
KOF-index of globalization, it is shown that the Scandinavian welfare
states have experienced faster, bigger and more consistent increases in
these areas, compared to the smaller European and the so called liberal
welfare states. The market economy and globalization hence do not pose
threats to these welfare states, but are instead neglected factors in
explaining their survival and good economic performance. Big government
decreases the economic freedom index by definition, but the welfare states
compensate in other areas, such as legal structure and secure property
rights.
Keywords: Welfare state; growth; property rights; globalization; taxation; economic freedom; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: F02; H11; P48; (follow links to similar papers)
23 pages, June 2, 2006
Before downloading any of the electronic versions below
you should read our statement on
copyright.
Download GhostScript
for viewing Postscript files and the
Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing pdf files.
Full text versions of the paper:
ab_welfare.pdf 
Download Statistics
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Niclas Berggren ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ()
or Björn Thodenius ().
Programing by
Design by Joachim Ekebom
