IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v17y2006i1p35-77.html

The Welfare Expenditure Debate: ‘Economic Myths of the Left and the Right’ Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Whiteford

Abstract

Just over 20 years ago, Fred Gruen (1982) reviewed debates about the level of welfare expenditure in Australia, noting them as being motivated on the one hand by the view that ‘more is better’, and on the other hand by the view that ‘too much’ is dangerous. Despite Gruen's debunking of many assertions about the Australian welfare state, the debate continues, with arguments on the one hand, that Australian welfare state spending is ‘mean’ compared to other countries, and on the other hand, that Australia has a significant problem of welfare dependency and increasing welfare spending. This paper presents the results of recent OECD studies that provide the most-up-to-date comparative information on the relative performance of Australian welfare arrangements. The paper looks at: (i) the trends in the level of social expenditure in Australia compared to other OECD countries, and explanations for differences across countries; (ii) the level of benefit receipt among people of working age; (iii) the impact of social expenditure on income distribution; and (iv) the relative generosity of benefits and implications for incentives. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy conclusions that might be drawn from these comparisons.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Whiteford, 2006. "The Welfare Expenditure Debate: ‘Economic Myths of the Left and the Right’ Revisited," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 17(1), pages 35-77, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:17:y:2006:i:1:p:35-77
    DOI: 10.1177/103530460601700103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530460601700103
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530460601700103?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wayne Vroman & Vera Brusentsev, 2005. "Unemployment Compensation Throughout the World: A Comparative Analysis," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number uctw.
    2. Barr, Nicholas, 2001. "The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199246595.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ann Harding & Quoc Ngu Vu & Alicia Payne & Richard Percival, 2009. "Trends in Effective Marginal Tax Rates in Australia from 1996–97 to 2006–07," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(271), pages 449-461, December.
    2. Bruce Chapman & Andrew Leigh, 2009. "Do Very High Tax Rates Induce Bunching? Implications for the Design of Income Contingent Loan Schemes," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(270), pages 276-289, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bea Cantillon & Wim Van Lancker, 2011. "Solidarity and reciprocity in the social investment state: what can be learned from the case of Flemish school allowances and truancy?," Working Papers 1109, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    2. Emanuela di Gropello, 2006. "Meeting the Challenges of Secondary Education in Latin America and East Asia : Improving Efficiency and Resource Mobilization," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7173, April.
    3. Palacios, Miguel, 2003. "Options for financing lifelong learning," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2994, The World Bank.
    4. Schmid, Günther, 2020. "Beyond European unemployment insurance. Less moral hazard, more moral assurance?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 465-480.
    5. Gregorio Caetano & Miguel Palacios & Harry A. Patrinos, 2019. "Measuring Aversion to Debt: An Experiment Among Student Loan Candidates," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 117-131, March.
    6. Peter W Jones, 2005. "Financing For Life Long Education:For Real GDP Growth In Jamaica," Development and Comp Systems 0511022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Vodopivec, Milan, 2004. "A Simulation of an Income Contingent Tuition Scheme in a Transition Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 1247, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Andersen, Torben M., 2004. "Challenges to the Scandinavian welfare model," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 743-754, September.
    9. Stefan Domonkos & Andras Simonovits, 2016. "Pensions in transition in EU11 countries between 1990 and 2015," KRTK-KTI WORKING PAPERS 1615, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    10. Bruce Chapman & Tim Higgins, 2013. "The Costs of Unpaid Higher Education Contribution Scheme Debts of Graduates Working Abroad," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 46(3), pages 286-299, September.
    11. repec:ers:journl:v:xxiv:y:2021:i:2:p:1007-1018 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Queisser, Monika & Whitehouse, Edward & Whiteford, Peter, 2007. "The public–private pension mix in OECD countries," MPRA Paper 10344, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Gunther Tichy, 2004. "Der Wandel von der 'Sozialdemokratischen Geborgenheit' zur 'Neuen Unsicherheit' - Eine vernachlässigte Ursache der Stagnation," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 30(1), pages 9-26.
    14. Tim Higgins & Bruce Chapman, 2009. "An Income contingent Loan for Extending Paid Parental Leave," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 12(2), pages 197-216.
    15. Williams, James & Hughes, Gerard & Blackwell, Sylvia, 2006. "Attitudes towards Funding of Long-term Care of the Elderly," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BMI185.
    16. Kemmerling, Achim, 2006. "Diffusion und Interaktion in der Arbeitsmarktpolitik? Positive und negative Ansteckungseffekte am Beispiel zweier Reformdiskussionen," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2006-119, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    17. repec:ces:ifodic:v:5:y:2007:i:2:p:14567392 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Christopher J. O’Leary & Burt S. Barnow & Karolien Lenaerts, 2020. "Lessons from the American federal‐state unemployment insurance system for a European unemployment benefits system," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(1), pages 3-34, January.
    19. Valentina Zigante, 2011. "Assessing Welfare Effects of the European Choice Agenda: The case of health care in the United Kingdom," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 35, European Institute, LSE.
    20. repec:aia:ginidp:dp53 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Pedro Moncarz, 2015. "Implicit redistribution within Argentina’s social security system: a micro-simulation exercise," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 24(1), pages 1-35, December.
    22. Sally Witcher, 2003. "Reviewing the Terms of Inclusion: Transactional processes, currencies and context," CASE Papers 067, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    23. Mcknight, Abigail, 2015. "A fresh look at an old question: is pro-poor targeting of cash transfers more effective than universal systems at reducing inequality and poverty?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103977, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:17:y:2006:i:1:p:35-77. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.