The principal objective of this contribution is to assess the well-being returns of social investment welfare provision in a comparative European perspective. The overarching objective of social investment welfare provision is to enhance people's opportunities and capabilities to resolve social risks typical of post-industrial societies ex-ante, by providing early childhood education and care, vocational training over the life course, capacitating active labour market policies, work-life balance policies like paid parental leave, lifelong learning, and long-term care. Common to these policies is that they transcend – but do not replace – the compensatory rationale of post-war social security that protected (predominantly male) workers and their (stable) families against industrial risks ex-post. As an individual's prospects of a healthy retirement correlate with whether they enjoyed a happy childhood, it is possible to conjecture a 'life-course multiplier' mechanism, whereby social investment returns reaped over the life course generate a positive cycle of well-being returns, in terms of employment opportunities and gender equity, competitiveness and fiscal balance, together with positive impacts on intra- and intergenerational poverty mitigation. Empirically, we proceed in the four steps, starting with a macro trend analysis of welfare state performance in statistical terms, teasing out changes in social spending in relation to gender- and age-related employment and poverty outcomes from a life-course perspective. Next, we analyse sociological panel data, using nationally representative longitudinal household survey data from 25 European countries to assess how policies jointly affect individuals' employment chances and poverty risks across different risk groups in terms of the policy complementarities of two typical social investment policies – early childhood education and care (ECEC) and active labour market policies (ALMP) – on employment probability among families with children. While higher spending efforts on the analysed policies tend to be associated with higher employment chances and lower poverty risk, the effects are reinforced when policy efforts are combined, and weakened when they work in silos. For more in-depth illustrative purposes, we provide a detailed quantitative case study, using household panel data and various policy indicators, of one country – Germany – that has experienced a gradual transformation from a male-breadwinner welfare state to a dual-earner social investment welfare model within the span of two decades. We observe how the policy shift to promoting female employment, as part of social investment reforms, has curtailed gender gaps in poverty risks. Finally, we tease out well-being returns on social investment, with respect to employment and poverty in terms of subjective wellbeing, using the Eurofound working and living conditions survey, with respect to childcare, active labour market policies, and active ageing and flexible retirement. We show how the availability of good quality and affordable childcare is related to higher levels of life satisfaction for young families and access to lifelong learning and flexible retirement reinforces subjective well-being satisfaction for older workers.

Previous literature on adult education has focused on various aspects of social inequalities, and although many acknowledge the important role of gender, the mechanisms influencing gender differences in participation are rarely to the fore. Specifically, women report family responsibilities as the main reason not to enrol in adult education (AE). This paper examines how family life influences enrolment in formal AE differently between men and women in two societies with highenrolment rates; Finland and Great Britain. Data from Finnish registers and Understanding Society is used to derive empirical evidence on the multidimensional work-family-education nexus. The results demonstrate clearly that family responsibilities restrict women from participating in formal adulteducation to a higher extent than men in Great Britain, but the picture is less gendered in Finland. Further, while Finnish society enables individuals who traditionally have fewer resources to attend formal AE (single parents, larger families), adult education in Britain is mainly taken up by individuals without children or by those in stable family situations. The results indicate the importance of institutional differences in providing equal access to further educational qualifications.

Objective: This study assesses whether and how changes in family policies are associated with first and second births in Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom, and whether these associations differ by women's education. Background: Family policies are expected to impact the direct and indirect costs of childbearing by providing resources that influence the monetary and non-monetary costs of having children. The countries analysed here have undergone substantial changes in family policy throughout the two decades analysed, but each country has changed different aspects of their policies, and they have done so in different policy environments. Method: We analysed women aged 18-44 and their transitions to first and second births using register data from Finland (N = 57,518 / 21,685) and panel data from Germany (G-SOEP, N=37,716 / 16,756) and the UK (BHPS and Understanding Society, N = 13,213 / 9,992) complemented with annual family policy information. The data were analysed using logistic regression models and interactions, and the results are presented as average marginal effects. Results: The results suggest that the association between changes in family policies and transitions to first and second child birth varied by birth parity, women's education level, and between countries. For example in Finland, increases in paternity leave length were associated with greater propensities to transition to first birth for highly educated women, whereas increases in child allowances had a similar association for lower educated women. In Germany, reductions in maternity leave length were associated with increased transitions to first birth for higher educated women. In the UK, increases in maternity leave length were associated with greater transitions to first births among all women. Conclusion: The results highlight that to the extent that family policies influence fertility, they do so depending on both the country context and often differentially within countries based on women's education level and birth parity.

This research examines whether the reduced opportunity costs observed during the Great Recession resulted in changing socioeconomic inequalities in college enrollment. The results of the multilevel logistic regression analyses of American high school graduation cohorts 2003–2013 with data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics indicate that educational decision-making changed during the recession. The association between parental education and college enrollment weakened during the recession for both men and women, but the changes in the association between parental income and enrollment contrasted by gender. While the income differences in college enrollment were reduced among female high school graduates, they increased among male graduates. The opportunity costs at the time of graduation were linked with the decreasing influence of parental income and the increasing influence of parental education during the recession.

Previous research has concentrated on the associations between higher incomes and delayed entry into parenthood, disadvantaged family background and early childbirth, and the availability of public childcare and fertility. This paper examines the extent to which parental resources moderate the relationship between women’s income and entry into parenthood, comparing two countries with very different levels of public family support: Finland and the United States. We use Cox regressions with data from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Finnish Census Panel data to demonstrate both striking similarities and differences between the two countries. First, high-income women from disadvantaged backgrounds postpone entry into parenthood in both countries. Second, high parental resources are associated with postponed entry into parenthood among low-income women. However, we find differences between the two countries regarding which parental resource is most influential. While parental income is important in the US, parental education matters most in Finland.

A vast literature exists on the relationship between family background and health outcomes. However, there is a shortage of evidence on the relationship between parental resources and offsprings' disability pension, a severe form of general poor health and functionability. This article analyses how parental income and education are associated with offsprings' disability pension in young adulthood (19-27 years) among 1980-1985 birth cohorts using Finnish register data. The results of discrete-time event history analysis demonstrate that parental income and education have contrasting impacts. High parental income is found to decrease, and parental education to increase, the probability of offspring having disability pension, although mainly among offspring with compulsory education. Further, young adults with high parental resources are better off two years after their first disability pension. We conclude that the influence of parental resources operates via offsprings' educational attainment but also has divergent direct impacts on offsprings' disability pension.

This chapter studies the impact of education and family policies on socioeconomic inheritance in European welfare states. By including concrete measures for policies in the analyses, the chapter contributes to the literature by providing new information on the impact of these contextual indicators on individual-level relationships. In order to study institutional compensation, accumulation, multiplication and equalization, the authors look at whether these policies have different impacts for high and low status families. The education policies analysed are pre-primary education, school leaving age and proportion completed tertiary education. The family policies this chapter focuses on are maternity leave and public spending on family allowances. The authors use data from the European Social Survey (ESS) collected between 2002 and 2010 including information on 15 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). Information on policies is collected from various sources. With multilevel fixed effects regression models the authors find institutional compensation in relation to maternity leave, whereas the proportion completed tertiary education and school leaving age have an equalizing impact on socioeconomic inheritance among the birth cohorts 1956–80 in Europe.

Previous research has shown how institutional changes, such as educational expansion, have weakened parental influence on educational attainment. We extend this analysis to occupational attainment and put forth a parental compensation hypothesis: as the origin-education (OE) association weakens, parents act to compensate for this in order to maintain their influence on the child's occupational attainment. We should see this as a strengthened origin-destination association net of education (net OD). Further, we study whether these compensatory actions are triggered by changes in educational institutions and whether the institutional changes that reduce educational inequality are the same ones that prompt parental compensation. We have linked data from five waves of the European Social Survey (2002-10) with data on educational institutions matched to birth cohorts born 1941-80 in 25 countries. We find weakened OE and strengthened net OD associations, supporting our parental compensation hypothesis. Multilevel mixed effects regression analyses reveal that reforms lengthening compulsory education, and the increased access to and the attainment of higher education have had a positive influence on parental compensation. As a conclusion, a later school leaving age seems to secure increased parental influence on children's occupational attainment, while parents seem to have reacted to a lesser extent on the changes in higher education.