The European Welfare State in Times of Crisis According to Macroeconomic Official Statistics

This paper aims at exploring changes in welfare state in Europe in the last decade, focussing on social protection expenditure. In particular, we examine the evolution of social protection expenditures in four countries, namely United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy and France, each one representing a specific welfare state model. The objective is to point out whether the crisis is pushing countries towards more homogeneous expenditure patterns or, at the opposite, towards even more polarized systems. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of social protection policies on people economic well-being (disposable income, consumption expenditure and wealth), with a focus on social benefits. The analysis is based on macroeconomic data, namely National Accounts and ESPROSS data.