Which dimensions of globalisation have an impact on social expenditure? How do different social welfare policies react to globalisation? This paper addresses these questions focusing on 36 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 1990–2015 and applying system Generalised Method of Moments to deal with endogeneity. We consider different dimensions of globalisation, economic, social and political, and their potential differentiated impacts on variegated social welfare policies. According to our findings, all the dimensions of globalisation have a positive effect on total social expenditure and on most of its components, although the influence is not statistically significant for social globalisation. The social welfare policies affected by globalisation are old age pensions, incapacity related, family and unemployment benefits and active labour market policies. These results can shed additional light on social and economic outcomes of globalisation such as poverty, inequality, long run growth and economic recovery.

This paper explores the contextual and government response factors to the first-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic for 25 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. It considers configurations of: obesity rates; proportions of elderly people; inequality rates; country travel openness and COVID-19 testing regimes, against outcomes of COVID-19 mortality and case rates. It finds COVID-19 testing per case to be at the root of sufficient solutions for successful country responses, combined, in the most robust solutions, with either high proportions of elderly people or low international travel levels at the start of pandemic. The paper then locates its sample countries in relation to existing welfare typologies across two dimensions based on total social expenditure and proportional differences between the GINI coefficient before and after taxes and transfers. It finds that countries generally categorised as “liberal” in most existing typologies did the most poorly in their first-wave COVID-19 response.

This exploratory paper utilises a comparative research approach to shed light upon the developmental trajectories of the Greek and Cypriot guaranteed minimum income (GMI) schemes. Our analysis indicates that, despite similarities (e.g. in the emergence of the two schemes, as part of the extensive reforms imposed during the financial crisis on the Greek and Cypriot welfare systems), there are also significant differences. These mainly relate to implementation and, ultimately, the “success” of the two schemes in attaining their declared goals. Moreover, we argue that the developmental paths followed by the Greek and Cypriot GMI schemes should be interpreted in the light of key variables (“functionalist,” “political” and “institutional”), often used to explain the establishment and further evolution of such schemes. Within this context, the relatively “superior” performance of the Cypriot GMI, compared with the Greek scheme, is largely attributed to factors such as government effectiveness and political stability.

In most global south countries, various informal institutions provide welfare to a large segment of the neglected, poor and vulnerable populations through informal social protection. Despite being a major source of welfare in the global south, the usefulness of informal social protection at the household level remains an under-researched area. In this exploratory study, we have determined the usefulness of informal social protection provided through religious institutions, such as madrassas and compared it with formal social protection at the household level utilising the case study of a lower-income country such as Pakistan. A mixed methodology of data collection comprising a survey and semi-structured interviews in 14 different cities of Pakistan of the poor and eligible households for receiving formal social protection was conducted for the research. The results suggest the coverage of informal social protection provided by madrassas is greater than formal social protection. The poor and vulnerable population value and considers it more useful than formal social protection. We conclude that integrating informal and formal social protection would help improve the effectiveness of social policies in developing and less developed countries.

This article investigates into how gender-neutral social policies affect gender dynamics of labour market participation, family life and livelihood. Taylor-Gooby’s [“New risks and social change”, pp. 1–28, 2004] new social risks concept and Holmes and Jones’ [Rethinking Social Protection from a Gender Lens. ODI Briefing Paper, 2010] framework are used to probe into the deepening of existing gender inequalities in the Mauritian multicultural society. The article argues that the prevailing social interventions in Mauritius overlook new social risks that have stemmed from the island’s economic transformation from a monocrop to an innovation based economy. This structural change has caused women, in particular, to face new risks and vulnerabilities. To advance the argument, the article examines gender norms, lack of appropriate gender-sensitive labour market policies and gender-neutral social protection measures. A mixed methodology is used with both secondary and primary data collected via interviews with key stakeholders from public and non-governmental organisations. The findings reveal the need to connect gender-sensitive welfare policies to risks and vulnerabilities to promote greater gender inclusiveness.

This review paper critically examines a range of analytical frameworks used to analyse the German mini-job scheme in comparative research on work and welfare. The approaches examined include labour market dualisation in comparative political economy research and welfare-to-work policies in comparative social policy research. The paper claims that using stylized facts instead of a thorough understanding of the broader context of national employment and social systems leads to misinterpretations in terms of policy learning. By describing the institutional context and main drivers of the evolution of mini-jobs over time, based on variety of data sources, statistics and empirical studies, the paper addresses the critical role of this specific employment scheme for gender equality, largely ignored in the comparative literature.