Varieties of social investment policies on two sides of the Baltic sea: explaining routes to endurance
ENBy 2016, European countries have more or less recovered from the 2008 recession. However, the strategies for coping with the crisis have varied, and one of the main concerns is to which extent the social investment paradigm has survived. In this article, we first map the dynamics of social investment expenditures in 2004–12 in six low- and high-spending welfare states in the Baltic Sea region – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Denmark and Sweden – and define countries which have managed to sustain the social investment ratio after recession. Second, by employing fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we explore the configurational routes of ideational and structural factors within various macroeconomic contexts associated with the endurance of social investment. The analysis revealed that two out of the six countries – Denmark and Lithuania – managed to increase or preserve the share of investment expenditures in their total welfare budgets. Stable economic growth and low government debt turned out to be necessary conditions regardless of the generosity of the welfare state. However, while in Baltic countries a strong economy has to be in conjunction with ideational contributors (such as a government coalition of liberals and social democrats, and strict employment protection), the Nordic route includes a strong economy in conjunction with a high share of service economy. Keywords: Welfare state; Social investment; Recession; Baltic States; Nordic countries; Fuzzy set QCA; Government composition; Employment protection; Economic growth. [From the publication]
- Ageless assets: social investment and active aging profiles in Lithuania / Violeta Vilkoitytė. Socialinė teorija, empirija, politika ir praktika 2024, Nr. 29, p. 23-38.
- Contemporary welfare regimes in Baltic states: adapting Post-Communist conditions to post-modern challenges / Anu Toots, Janika Bachmann. Studies of transition states and societies. 2010, Vol. 2, iss. 2, p. 31-44.
- Social policy changes in the three Baltic states over the last decade (2000–2012) / Jolanta Aidukaitė. Ekonomika. 2013, t. 92 (3), p. 89-104.
