Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T05:05:52.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The productive and protective dimensions of welfare in Asia and the Pacific: pathways towards human development and income equality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Stefan Kühner*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK

Abstract

This article draws on recent data provided by the Asian Development Bank's Social Protection Index and uses Fuzzy Set Ideal Type Analysis to develop ideal types of welfare activity to which 29 countries in Asia and the Pacific can have varying degrees of membership. There is little evidence that the commitment to “productive” and “protective” welfare is oriented along broad geographical units or predetermined by economic affluence and the size of the informal economy. It also adds an explorative Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to test the effect of “productive” and “protective” welfare properties on human development and income equality. Here, it finds that the absence of strong income protection is most clearly linked to low human development at the macro-level; high education investment is linked to high income inequality if governments fail to invest in employment and income protection or employment protection and training, respectively.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Shark, M., & Gough, I. (2010). Global welfare regimes: A cluster analysis. Global Social Policy, 10(1), 2758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asian Development Bank. (2003). Social protection strategy. Mandaluyong City: Author.Google Scholar
Asian Development Bank. (2008). Strategy 2020: The long-term strategic framework of the Asian Development Bank, 2008–2020. Mandaluyong City: Author.Google Scholar
Asian Development Bank. (2010). Enhancing social protection in Asia and the Pacific: The proceedings of the regional workshop. Mandaluyong City: Author.Google Scholar
Asian Development Bank. (2013). The social protection index. Mandaluyong City: Author.Google Scholar
Balakrishnan, R., Steinberg, C., & Syedet, M. (2013). The elusive quest for inclusive growth: Growth, poverty, and inequality in Asia (IMF Working Paper). Asia and Pacific Department, WP/13/152.Google Scholar
Bartels, B. (2008). Beyond “fixed versus random effects”: A framework for improving substantive and statistical analysis of panel, TSCS, and multilevel data. Society for Political Methodology Working Paper. Retrieved from http://polmeth.wustl.edu/Google Scholar
Berg-Schlosser, D., De Meur, G., Rihoux, B., & Ragin, C. C. (2009). Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) as an approach. In Rihoux, B. & Ragin, C. C. (Eds.), Configurational comparative methods: Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and related techniques (pp. 118). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Botero, J., Djankov, S., La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., & Shliefer, A. (2003). The regulation of labor (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 9756). Cambridge, MA: NBER.Google Scholar
Bussolo, M., & Lopez-Calva, L. F. (2014). Shared prosperity: Paving the way in Europe and Central Asia. Washington, DC: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, S., & Kabeer, N. (Eds.). (2010). Social protection as development: Asian perspectives. New Delhi: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cooper, B., & Glaesser, J. (2011). Paradoxes and pitfalls in using fuzzy set QCA: Illustrations from a critical review of a study of educational inequality. Sociological Research Online, 16(3). Retrieved from http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/3/8.html doi: 10.5153/sro.2444CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copestake, J. (2015). Whither development studies? Reflections on its relationship with social policy. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 31(2), 100113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornia, A. C., & Stewart, F. (Eds.). (2014). Towards human development: New approaches to macroeconomics and inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeDeken, J. (2012, September 6–8). Identifying the skeleton of the social investment state: Defining and measuring patterns of social policy change on the basis of expenditure data. Paper presented at the ESPAnet 2012 Conference Edinburgh. In Social innovation and social investment, Scotland.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press and Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, J., & Kühner, S. (2009). Towards productive welfare? A comparative analysis of 23 countries. Journal of European Social Policy, 19(1), 3446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J., & Kühner, S. (2012). Analyzing the productive and protective dimensions of welfare: Looking beyond the OECD. Social Policy and Administration, 46(1), 3560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Labour Organisation. (2009). Tackling the global jobs crisis: Recovery through decent work policies. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
International Labour Organisation. (2010). World social security report 2010: Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
International Labour Organisation. (2011). Social protection floor for a fair and inclusive globalization. Report of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
International Labour Organisation. (2014a). World social protection report 2014/15: Building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
International Labour Organisation. (2014b). Women and men in the informal economy. A statistical picture. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund. (2014). Government finance statistics. Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Kabeer, N. (2015). Evolving meanings of ‘the social’ in the international development agenda. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 31(2), 114131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köhler, U., & Chopra, D. (Eds.). (2014). Development and welfare policy in South Asia. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kühner, S. (2015). What if we waited a little longer? The dependent variable problem within the comparative analysis of the welfare state revisited (Social policy review 27). Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
McNamara, C. (2014). Trade liberalization, social policies and health: A theoretical and empirical exploration (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of York, York.Google Scholar
Midgley, J. (2014). Social development: Theory and practice. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011). Divided we stand: Why inequality keeps rising. Paris: Author.Google Scholar
Ostry, J. D., Berg, A., & Tsangarides, C. G. (2014). Redistribution, inequality, and growth. In IMF Staff Discussion Note, SDN/14/02. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Powell, M., & Barrientos, A. (2004). Welfare regimes and the welfare mix. European Journal of Political Research, 43(1), 83105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ragin, C. C. (2008). Redesigning social inquiry: Fuzzy sets and beyond. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ragin, C. C., & Schneider, G. A. (2011). Case-oriented theory building and theory testing. In Williams, M. & Vogt, W. P. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of innovation in social research methods (pp. 150166). London: SAGE Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Room, G. (2002). Education and welfare: Recalibrating the European debate. Policy Studies, 23(1), 3750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudra, N. (2004). Openness, welfare spending, and inequality in the developing world. International Studies Quarterly, 48(3), 683709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Running, K. (2015). The liberalisation of India's labour laws within the National Manufacturing Policy 2011: Where business power and social policy collide. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 31(2), 192208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, C. Q., & Rohlfing, I. (2013). Combining QCA and process tracing in set-theoretic multi-method research. Sociological Methods & Research, 42(4), 559597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, C. Q., & Wagemann, C. (2012). Set-theoretic methods for the social sciences: A guide to qualitative comparative analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surender, R., & Walker, R. (Eds.). (2013). Social policy in a developing world. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UNDG Asia-Pacific/ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. (2014). Asia-Pacific social protection issues brief. Bangkok: ILO.Google Scholar
United Nations. (2014). The millennium development goals report 2014. New York, NY: Author.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Human development report 2014. Sustaining human progress: Reducing vulnerabilities and building resilience. New York, NY: Author.Google Scholar
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. (2011). Social development in an uncertain world. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
Vis, B. (2007). States of welfare or states of workfare? Welfare state restructuring in 16 capitalist democracies, 1985–2002. Policy & Politics, 35(1), 105122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, G. (2015). Situating informal welfare within imperfect wellbeing regimes. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 31(2), 132150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. (2014a). World development indicators. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicatorsGoogle Scholar
World Bank. (2014b). Doing business – measuring business regulations. Retrieved from http://www.doingbusiness.org/Google Scholar
World Economic Forum. (2014). New growth models: Challenges and steps to achieving patterns of more equitable, inclusive and sustainable growth. Retrieved from http://www.weforum.org/reports/Google Scholar
Zhuang, J. (2011). Poverty, inequality, and inclusive growth in Asia: Measurement, policy and country studies. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar