A safety net for all? - Vignette-based assessments of Swedish social assistance over three decades
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2116426 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Åke Bergmark (0000-0002-7230-1510, Stockholm University, corresponding author), Hugo Stranz (Stockholm University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0047279422000988 |
| OpenAlex | W4327948824 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 27 |
Swedish welfare is often characterized as comprehensive and generous. Social assistance constitutes the final safety net in the Swedish model. Unlike most other benefits, eligibility and subsidy levels are here subject to extensive means-testing, with eligibility determined by individual caseworkers. In this article, we explore the extent to which eligibility determination and generosity of benefits have changed in social assistance assessments over three decades, relating these to changes in regulations over the same period. The article presents data from three independent vignette studies conducted in the mid-1990s, mid-2000s and in 2018 respectively. The data consist of assessments of a total of six vignettes, made by individual caseworkers (n=1 337). The results indicate that overall generosity in social assistance has decreased considerably over the last 25 years and that, despite both national and local initiatives to reduce individual variation in assessments, disparities have instead increased
Actuarial science · Business · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Generosity · Political science · Public economics · Safety net · Social Assistance · Subsidy · Vignette · Welfare · Employment and Welfare Studies · Health disparities and outcomes · Medicine · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |