Policy Brief

Welfare states as lifecycle redistribution machines

Age is more important than status in how social policies operate

European welfare states have evolved into sizable and resource-consuming institutions with a total social spending of around 28 percent of GDP and social policies affect every stage of citizens’ lives. But what do welfare states mostly do?

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Welfare states as lifecycle redistribution machines

Key Messages

In practice, European welfare states are neither primarily nor solely responsible for inequality reduction
They redistribute much more across age than across socio-economic status lines
Accordingly, welfare states should be viewed mostly as an institutional solution to the lifecycle consumption financing problem.

References

Vanhuysse Pieter, Medgyesi Marton, & Gál Robert Ivan (2021). Welfare states as lifecycle redistribution machines: Decomposing the roles of age and socioeconomic status shows that European tax-and-benefit systems primarily redistribute across age groups. PLoS ONE 16(8): e0255760. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255760

Additional Information

Authors of Original Article

Source

Vanhuysse, P., Medgyesi, M. and Gál, R. (2021). Welfare states as lifecycle redistribution machines: Age is more important than status in how social policies operate. Population & Policy Compact 31, Berlin: Max Planck Society/Population Europe.