Assessing the interdependence of social policy outcomes. evidence from european countries

This paper investigates the existence of social policy interdependence in 22 European countries. We find that the outcomes of social policies achieved in a country are influenced by the social outcomes obtained in other countries; more precisely, there is a positive correlation between the level of welfare services in a country and a weighted average of the welfare services level in other countries, with the weights capturing the different degrees of proximity between them. The other determinants of social outcomes include the efficiency of the expenditure process, the GDP level, and the redistributive preferences of the median voter.