Search results for "welfare"
showing 10 items of 921 documents
Selectivity of clientele in Finnish private early childhood education and care
2021
In accordance with the Nordic welfare model, the Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) system has traditionally been based on public provision and the idea of universalism. However, over the last twenty years the ECEC system has undergone market-oriented reforms. As a result, the share of private for-profit ECEC provision has grown significantly. By applying impression management theory, this qualitative research examines how representatives of private ECEC providers describe the selection and selectivity of their clientele and how they aim at managing the impression they convey through their descriptions. The study shows how three different mechanisms of selectivity are produce…
The cost of market power in banking: Social welfare loss vs. cost inefficiency
2007
Abstract This paper analyses the relationship between market power in the loan and deposit markets and efficiency in the EU-15 countries over 1993–2002. Results show the existence of a positive relationship between market power and cost X-efficiency, allowing rejection of the so-called quiet life hypothesis [Berger, A.N., Hannan, T.H., 1998. The efficiency cost of market power in the banking industry: A test of the ‘quiet life’ and related hypotheses. Review of Economics and Statistics 8 (3), 454–465]. The social welfare loss attributable to market power in 2002 represented 0.54% of the GDP of the EU-15. Results show that the welfare gains associated with a reduction of market power are gre…
The Invisible Pandemic: Domestic Violence and Health and Welfare Services in Italy and in the United Kingdom during Covid-19
2021
Background: International research has shown how Domestic Violence (DV) can escalate during and after or large-scale crises or natural disaster. In many parts of the world, the introduction of lockdown, together with periods of global self-isolation in order to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, has put families, women and children in abusive relationships more at risk, in terms of an “invisible pandemic”. Objective: The purpose of this paper is examining specific reports from Italy and the United Kingdom and analysing how there has been a surge in the pattern of DV cases, recorded globally during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: For this purpose, starting from an increased number of DV report…
Social service professionals in Finland under the pressures of a depressed economy and European integration
1993
The Nordic welfare states are known as women-friendly. However, during the last years their policies have been to turn the back on women. At least in Finland there seem to exist two powerful forces that have advanced the non-egalitarian development: the economic recession of the 1990s and the integration of Europe. The decline of the Nordic welfare states is going to have considerable consequences for social service professionals, the great majority of whom are women. Therefore, they should create new strategies and find new allies in order to defend their own as well their clients rights.
Finnish vocational education and training in comparison: Strengths and weaknesses
2014
International journal for research in vocational education and training 1 (2014) 2, S. 81-106
Care poverty : unmet care needs in a Nordic welfare state
2019
This article introduces the concept of care poverty, defined as inadequate coverage of care needs resulting from an interplay between individual and societal factors, and examines its level and predictors among the 75+ population in Finland. The data come from a survey conducted in 2010 and 2015. Despite the universalistic goals of the Finnish care system, 26 percent of respondents with limitations in daily activities faced care poverty with regard to instrumental activities of daily living; the activities of daily living care poverty rate was 17 percent. Concerning instrumental activities of daily living, care poverty was associated with income level, health status and living arrangements,…
How perceptions of immigrants trigger feelings of economic and cultural threats in two welfare states
2017
Better understanding of attitudes toward immigration is crucial to avoid misperception of immigration in the public debate. Through two identical online survey experiments applying morphed faces of non-Western immigrants and textual vignettes, the authors manipulate complexion, education, family background, and gender in Denmark and Germany. For women, an additional split in which half of the women wore a headscarf is performed. In both countries, highly skilled immigrants are preferred to low-skilled immigrants. Danes are more skeptical toward non-Western immigration than Germans. Essentially, less educated Danes are very critical of accepting non-Western immigrants in their country. It i…
Defamilisation, Dedomestication and Care Policy: Comparing Childcare Service Provisions of Welfare States
2011
PurposeThis paper aims to use perspectives from both mainstream and feminist welfare state research in drafting a conceptual approach for social care research. This approach is then applied empirically to a comparative analysis of childcare provisions of 15 OECD countries.Design/methodology/approachThe concept of dedomestication is developed from a discussion on the notions of decommodification and defamilisation, and it is defined as the degree to which social care policies make it possible for people to participate in society and social life outside their homes and families. In the empirical part of the paper, dedomestication of childcare service provisions of 15 welfare states is measure…
Third Sector, Social Enterprises and Local Authorities in a EU Candidate Country. The Case of Albania
2013
The paper is based on evidence offered by survey data collected through a structured questionnaire in a long range survey launched in July 2012 by the Steering Group of ASE Forum. The aim of the study was to reveal the trend, status, profile, features and the role of potentials enterprises in Albania in supporting welfare and wellbeing in synergy with the local authorities.After an appropriate methodological introduction, the paper reports main statistical evidence concerning the Third sector in Albania and the direct survey outcomes about the features and the activity of the organizations interviewed.Conclusions will be driven by data analysis and will be focused on the needs, limits and o…
The Relationships Between Local and National Childcare Policies – A Comparison of Nordic and Southern European Cities
2015
We start by comparing the childcare systems in the 11 European cities, looking particularly at whether the childcare provision in these cities follows national provision levels or not. We then focus on analyzing the relationships between local and national childcare policies in four European cities: Bologna (Italy) and Terrassa (Spain) from Southern Europe, and Jyvaskyla (Finland) and Aalborg (Denmark) from the Nordic countries. The availability and use of childcare services are analyzed, as are other factors influencing the possibilities and obstacles of labour market participation for mothers with young children. The aim of this analysis is to demonstrate the significance of local welfare…