Comparing asset-based welfare capitalism: wealth inequality, housing finance and household risk

The financialization of households complicates how we compare housing systems and welfare states. This article explores the shifting relationships between wealth inequality, welfare states and household risk, focussing on the roles of housing and mortgage markets. We show national regimes of capitalism continue to shape experiences of risk, but increasingly through asset-based welfare mechanisms, centred on housing ownership, that are inadequately captured in existing comparative literature. Using OECD data, our argument is developed in two steps. First, we demonstrate that national patterns of wealth inequality do not follow classical welfare state categories, but mean wealth levels do, suggesting a distinct structural relationship. Second, we connect wealth inequality to the risks of housing ownership and household debt, focussing on house price falls in the United States, Italy and Denmark following the 2007–2008 financial crisis. We find mortgage default rates reflect welfare state categories rather than measures of financial risk, revealing an emerging ‘hybrid’ role of social insurance in supporting household liquidity.