IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hdl/wpaper/1209.html

The Active Welfare State Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Frank Vandenbroucke

Abstract

This paper revisits social policy developments in Belgium in the decade 2000-2010 on the basis of stylized facts with regard to spending, employment, the social policy caseload, dependency rates and poverty. With regard to spending it focuses on the long-term evolution in Belgian public social spending and the extent to which the observed spending pattern accommodated the perceived emergence of new social risks. By means of ‘budgetary effort indicators’, the analysis disentangles the impact of demographic evolutions from deliberate shifts in broad policy priorities. In addition, the paper addresses some critical points in the performance of the Belgian welfare state, such as the rising number of children at risk of poverty, the need to anticipate long-term demographic ageing, and (briefly) the need for structural changes in parts of the health care system. I conclude that preparing the next wave of social reform is imperative for this country.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank Vandenbroucke, 2012. "The Active Welfare State Revisited," Working Papers 1209, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    • Handle: RePEc:hdl:wpaper:1209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/oldcontent/container2453/files/CSB%20WP%202012/CSB_WP_12_09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marjan, MAES, 2008. "Financial and redistributive impact of reforming the old-age pension system in Belgium," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2008040, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    2. Leen Meeusen & Annemie Nys, 2012. "Are new social risk expenditures crowding out the old?," Working Papers 1208, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Jones, Erik, 2008. "Economic Adjustment and Political Transformation in Small States," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199208333.
    4. Vincent Corluy & Frank Vandenbroucke, 2012. "Individual Employment, Household Employment and Risk of Poverty in the EU. A Decomposition Analysis," Working Papers 1206, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    5. Kevin M. Murphy & Robert H. Topel, 2006. "The Value of Health and Longevity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(5), pages 871-904, October.
    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. André Decoster & Sergio Perelman & Dieter Vandelannoote & Toon Vanheukelom & Gerlinde Verbist, 2015. "A bird’s eye view on 20 years of tax-benefit reforms in Belgium," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 494657, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    2. Stijn Oosterlynck & Yuri Kazepov, & Andreas Novy & Pieter Cools & Tatiana Sarius & Florian Wukovitsch, 2015. "Welfare systems, governance and social innovation: case study country profiles of Austria, Belgium and Italy," ImPRovE Working Papers 15/17, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Tim Rie & Ive Marx, 2013. "GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in Belgium," GINI Country Reports belgium, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.

    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. Christian Gollier, 2020. "Cost–benefit analysis of age‐specific deconfinement strategies," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(6), pages 1746-1771, December.
    2. Juan Carlos Córdoba & Marla Ripoll, 2019. "The Elasticity of Intergenerational Substitution, Parental Altruism, and Fertility Choice," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(5), pages 1935-1972.
    3. Maik T. Schneider & Ralph Winkler, 2021. "Growth and Welfare under Endogenous Lifetimes," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(4), pages 1339-1384, October.
    4. Christos A Makridis & Andrew A Borkowski & Gil Alterovitz, 2024. "Perspectives on advancing innovation and human flourishing through a network of AI institutes," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 557-562.
    5. Peter A. Savelyev, 2014. "Psychological Skills, Education, and Longevity of High-Ability Individuals," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 14-00007, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    6. Ryan Edwards, 2013. "The cost of uncertain life span," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1485-1522, October.
    7. James K. Hammitt, 2020. "Valuing mortality risk in the time of COVID-19," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 129-154, October.
    8. Guo, Miao & Li, Yang & Zhang, Wendan, 2025. "Supply expansion of Long-Term Services & Supports: Evidence from China’s long-term care insurance pilot," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    9. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Taylor Wright, 2020. "COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders and Employment: Evidence from CPS Data," Carleton Economic Papers 20-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 May 2020.
    10. Chen, Li-Shiun & Wang, Ping & Yao, Yao, 2018. "Power of personalized smoking cessation: A unified lifecycle framework for policy evaluation," Working Paper Series 20333, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    11. Yoo, Sunbin & Managi, Shunsuke, 2020. "Global mortality benefits of COVID-19 action," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    12. Rodrigo R. Soares & Rudi Rocha & Michel Szklo, 2021. "American Delusion: Life Expectancy and Welfare in the US from an International Perspective," Working Papers 13, Instituto de Estudos para Políticas de Saúde.
    13. Kuhn, Michael & Frankovic, Ivan & Wrzaczek, Stefan, 2017. "Medical Progress, Demand for Health Care, and Economic Performance," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168249, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Shaun Costa, 2025. "Global lifespan and welfare inequality over the last five decades from a prioritarian perspective," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 65(2), pages 487-512, September.
    15. Mathilda Eriksson & Alejandro del Valle & Alejandro de la Fuente, 2025. "Droughts worsen air quality and health by shifting power generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Kai Hong & Peter A. Savelyev & Kegon T. K. Tan, 2020. "Understanding the Mechanisms Linking College Education with Longevity," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(3), pages 371-400.
    17. Joel B E Smith & Keith Channon & Vasiliki Kiparoglou & John F Forbes & Alastair M Gray, 2019. "A macroeconomic assessment of the impact of medical research expenditure: A case study of NIHR Biomedical Research Centres," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-10, April.
    18. Scott, Andrew J., 2023. "The economics of longevity – An introduction," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    19. Scherer, F.M., 2010. "Pharmaceutical Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 539-574, Elsevier.
    20. Joseph Findlay & Caleb Piche-Larocque & Akhter Faroque, 2022. "Cost Estimation and Health Benefits Determinants of Medical Innovations Across Canadian Provinces," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hdl:wpaper:1209. 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: Santiago Burone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csbuabe.html .

    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.