Abstract:
The Welfare State systems in Western countries are subject to continious debate and a substantial amount of research. This thesis investigates how economic globalization affects welfare state generosity, an area where previous research has found conflicting results. The thesis contributes to the debate by problematizing how welfare states should be conceptualized. I define three categories of dependent variables in welfare state research, related to social spending, social rights and redistribution, respectively, and discuss strengths and weaknesses. An empirical investigation of 18 OECD-countries is carried out, using all three categories of variables, and the results show that openness has a negative effect on welfare state generosity.