Hyvinvointivaltiomallit ja talouden toiminta

Working Papers 240 Hannu Tanninen

Abstract

Welfare state regimes have in recent decade come under increasing interest. From the point of eco-nomic analysis welfare state has been attacked due to increased welfare state expenditures or due to their expected negative consequences on economic performance. Recently, the economic perform-ance of four different welfare state regimes has been analysed in the context of European Integra-tion. It has turned out that so called Nordic model of welfare state has been successful in overcoming the trade off between equality and efficiency. However, in several Nordic countries income inequal-ity has increased and such a development can have negative consequences on the performance of the Nordic model of welfare state.