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Full Employment and the Welfare State

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  • Assar Lindbeck

Abstract

The modern welfare state and full-employment policies have common intellectual roots. In the 1930s and 1940s, Keynesian visions of full employment and Beveridge-inspired ideas of a universal welfare state grew up in about the same intellectual environment. Both ideas emphasized a government’s responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. The two ideas were also projected by approximately the same individuals. From the very beginning, welfare-state arrangements and full-employment policies were regarded as strongly complementary. Both were designed to improve the economic security of the individual, although welfare-state arrangements deal largely with life-cycle considerations, while full-employment policies focus on the situation at a given point in time. They were also believed to support each other. Not only would high aggregate employment help finance the welfare state by boosting the tax base and keeping down the number of beneficiaries. A reverse causation was also assumed: various welfare-state arrangements were often asserted to contribute to full employment. Hence a virtuous circle was postulated between the welfare state and full employment. Governments also constructed specific institutional arrangements and regulations that were explicitly designed to strengthen the consistency and complementarity between the welfare state and full-employment policies. Actual economic and social developments during the first decades after World War II seemed to support the view of a harmonious, indeed symbiotic,relation between the welfare state and full-employment policies. It turned out to be possible to combine full employment with high economic security and a gradually more even distribution of income, which are important ambitions of the welfare state. Exactly what, then, were the asserted complementarities between the welfare state and full-employment policies, and why do these complementarities look less convincing today? I would like to organize the discussion
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Assar Lindbeck, 1997. "Full Employment and the Welfare State," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 41(1), pages 3-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:41:y:1997:i:1:p:3-14
    DOI: 10.1177/056943459704100101
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Francesco Giavazzi & Marco Pagano, 1995. "Non-Keynesian Effects of Fiscal Policy Changes: International Evidence and the Swedish Experience," NBER Working Papers 5332, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Katharine G. Abraham & Susan N. Houseman, 1994. "Does Employment Protection Inhibit Labor Market Flexibility? Lessons from Germany, France, and Belgium," NBER Chapters, in: Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?, pages 59-94, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bean, Charles R, 1994. "European Unemployment: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 573-619, June.
    4. Anders Forslund & Alan B. Krueger, 1997. "An Evaluation of the Swedish Active Labor Market Policy: New and Received Wisdom," NBER Chapters, in: The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model, pages 267-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Assar Lindbeck, 1993. "Unemployment and Macroeconomics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121751, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Malinvaud, Edmund, 1998. "Megjegyzések a gazdasági rendszerek értékeléséről [Comments on the evaluation of economic systems]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 163-172.
    2. Lindbeck, Assar, 2001. "Changing Tides for the Welfare State - An Essay," Working Paper Series 550, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    3. Lindbeck, Assar, 2001. "Changing Tides For The Welfare State," Seminar Papers 694, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    4. Aloys Prinz, 2004. "Reform der Arbeitsmarktpolitik: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 5(3), pages 313-332, August.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

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