Nicole Attia () (University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CEMAFI, France) Valerie Berenger () (University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CEMAFI, France)
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to test the convergence of social protection expenditures and, more specifically, to examine the incidence of the Maastricht Treaty on this process. We tested several hypotheses of convergence on 12 EU Member States between 1980 and 2000, by considering two indicators: social protection expenditure as percentage of GDP and social protection expenditure per capita. The cross sectional tests of ? and ??convergence show that, for the two indicators, these two assumptions are checked for the whole of the period. On the other hand, the period division in two subperiods intended to locate the Maastricht effect indicates a rupture since 1993. Then, panel data estimations of conditional ?-convergence confirm the existence of a process of conditional convergence and reveal the significant role of the debt criterion of Maastricht. The coexistence of absolute and conditional ?-convergence is not incompatible. It evokes the possible idea of a European Social Snake rather than of a single Social Model.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Faculty of economics, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
200745.
Length: 18 pages Date of creation: Oct 2007 Date of revision:
Dec 2007 Publication status: Published in Panoeconomicus, December 2007, pages 469-487 Handle: RePEc:voj:wpaper:200745
Find related papers by JEL classification: H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs O52 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
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