Abstract
Welfare comprises much more than market income and the goods and services bought by it. Traditional indicators such as the market-based Gross Domestic Product fail to reflect this multidimensionality as they exclude household production, leisure and the use or conservation of (global) commons. Four sectors (Market-oriented private enterprises, government, households and the social economy) produce welfare. Their relative weight changes in the course of economic development and due to shifting preferences and to structural change driven by heterogeneous productivity growth. Markets are subject to crises and show severe deficits as welfare optimizers by neglecting external effects and the inequality of market participants. These deficits require a stronger role of the state which must provide a broad range of social services given the inequality of income and the relative saturation with private goods and services. Globalization can contribute to the growth and welfare of poorer countries but tends to exacerbate within-country inequality. The welfare of future generations requires not less debt, but investment in the global capital stock including education, less exploitation of planetary resources, and population control.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
See also Zapf (1984) who uses the same categorization albeit replacing private corporations by “markets”. Actually, markets do not produce welfare but organize welfare production through the interaction of producers and consumers which can be any of the four types listed here.
- 2.
Employment figures in this paragraph are based on Hammouya (1999).
- 3.
Figures in this paragraph are taken from the 2012 Economic Freedom index of the Heritage Foundation (http://www.heritage.org/index/explore?view=by-variables)
- 4.
This unusual case can probably be explained by a relatively, to the recipient’s GDP, high volume of foreign aid received by the government which allows spending to exceed GDP.
- 5.
See Iversen (2005) table 1.1 on p. 16.
- 6.
Destatis “Wo bleibt die Zeit? Die Zeitverwendung der Bevölkerung in Deutschland 2001/2” (http://www.bmfsfj.de/RedaktionBMFSFJ/Abteilung2/Pdf-Anlagen/wo-bleibt-zeit,property=pdf.pdf; accessed 23 July 2012).
- 7.
See Flodman Becker (2004), based on ILO (International Labor Organization) statistics.
- 8.
See Monzón and Chaves (2012) Chapter 4, pp. 19–21.
- 9.
For a good overview see Stiglitz (2012).
- 10.
In this experiment one player receives an amount of money which he must share with a second player. If both players cannot agree on the split the money will go back to the bank. Pure microeconomics suggests that the second player should accept any share as it increases his wealth. Actually the results of the experiment show that most players are willing to forego the gain if they consider the split unfair (usually meaning less than a third). Fairness is obviously valued higher than monetary gain.
- 11.
- 12.
See Iversen (2005, pp. 246–250) for a more detailed analysis of the “service economy trilemma” between equality, employment and fiscal restraint.
- 13.
A life style based on local networks (including regional currencies) and homework; see Paech (2012).
- 14.
http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm (accessed 24 July 2012); see also Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen und Jean Paul Fitoussi (2010).
- 15.
See http://www.beyond-gdp.eu/ (accessed 24 July 2012).
- 16.
See http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/gremien/enquete/wachstum/index.jsp (accessed 24 July 2012).
- 17.
see Dauderstädt and Keltek (2011) based on the World Inequality Database (http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/Database/en_GB/wiid/).
References
Akerlof, G. (2006). The missing motivation in macroeconomics. http://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2007/0106_1640_0101.pdf. Accessed 26 July 2012.
Augurzky, B. et al. (2012). Soziale Gesundheitswirtschaft – Impulse für mehr Wohlstand. Bonn. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/08872.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2012.
Baumol, W. J. (2012). The cost disease. Why computers get cheaper and health care doesn’t. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.
Boeri, T., et al. (2008). Working hours and job sharing in the EU and USA. Are Europeans lazy? Or Americans crazy? Oxford: OUP.
Dauderstädt, M. (2010). Europas unterschätzte Ungleichheit. Bonn: FES.
Dauderstädt, M. (2011). Globales Wachstum zwischen Klima, Gleichheit und Demographie. Bonn: FES.
Dauderstädt, M., & Keltek, C. (2011). Globale Ungleichheit: 50:1 für die Reichen! Bonn: FES.
Dauderstädt, M., & Schildberg, A. (Eds.). (2006). Dead ends of transition. Rentier economies and protectorates. Frankfurt/New York: Campus.
Defourny, J., et al. (2009). The worldwide making of the social economy. Innovations and changes. Leuven: Acco.
Destatis Wo bleibt die Zeit? Die Zeitverwendung der Bevölkerung in Deutschland 2001/2. http://www.bmfsfj.de/RedaktionBMFSFJ/Abteilung2/Pdf-Anlagen/wo-bleibt-zeit,propertypdf.pdf. Accessed 23 July 2012.
Easterlin, R. A. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? In P. A. David & M. W. Reder (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth: Essays in honor of Moses Abramovitz. New York: Academic.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Flodman Becker, K. (2004). The informal economy (SIDA = Swedish International Development Agency). http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/PapersLinks/Sida.pdf. Accessed 24 July 2012.
Glatzer, W. (2001). Wohlfahrt in der Wohlfahrtsgesellschaft. In H. Hill (Hg.), Modernisierung – Prozess oder Entwicklungsstrategie (pp. 223–238). Frankfurt/New York: Campus.
Gramke, K., Schüssler, R., & Matuschke, M. (2012). Soziales Wachstum durch produktive Kreisläufe. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/08886.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2012.
Gregory, M., Salverda, W., & Schettkat, R. (2007). Services and employment. Explaining the U.S.-European gap. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hall, P. A., & Soskice, D. (2001). Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hammouya, M. (1999). Statistics on public sector employment. Methodology, structures and trends. ILO http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/download/wp_pse_e.pdf
Hirsch, F. (1977). The social limits to growth. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Hirschman, A. O. (1982). Shifting involvements: Private interest and public action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Iversen, T. (2005). Capitalism, democracy, and welfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lee, C.-S., et al. (2011). The limit of equality projects: Public-sector expansion, sectoral conflicts, and income inequality in postindustrial economies. American Sociological Review, 76/1, 100–125.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396.
Minsky, H. P. (2011). Instabilität und Kapitalismus. Zürich: Diaphanes.
Monzón, J. L., & Chavez, R. (2012). The social economy in the European Union. http://csdle.lex.unict.it/Archive/LW/Data%20reports%20and%20studies/Reports%20%20from%20Committee%20and%20Groups%20of%20Experts/20121018-045742_CIRIEC_Social_economy_Oct2012pdf.pdf
Nussbaum, M. C. (2003). Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and social justice. Feminist Economics, 9(2/3), 33–59. http://avforensics.org/healthcare/Nussbaum.pdf. Accessed 23 July 2012.
OECD. (2011). How’s life? Measuring well-being. Paris: OECD.
Ostwald, D., & Sesselmeier, W. (2008). Das Arbeits-BIP: eine umfängliche Berücksichtigung der Arbeitsleistung bei der Wohlstandsberechnung. Bonn: FES/WISO. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/08702.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2012.
Paech, N. (2012). Befreiung vom Überfluss: Auf dem Weg in die Postwachstumsökonomie. München: Oekom Verlag.
Schettkat, R. (2010). Dienstleistungen zwischen Kostenkrankheit und Marketization. Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/07406.pdf. Accessed 28 Dec 2012.
Schneider, F. (2002). Size and measurement of the informal economy in 110 countries around the world. http://www.amnet.co.il/attachments/informal_economy110.pdf. Accessed 23 July 2012.
Schwahn, F., & Schwarz, N. (2012, October). Einkommensverteilung als Baustein der Wohlfahrtsmessung. Ein Beitrag der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen. Wirtschaft und Statistik, pp. 829–842.
Spence, M., & Hlatshwayo, S. (2011). The evolving structure of the American economy and the employment challenge. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
Stiglitz, J. E. (2012). The price of inequality. New York/London: Norton.
Stiglitz, J., Sen, A., & Fitoussi, J. P. (2010). Mismeasuring our lives. New York: The New Press.
Thementeam Soziales Wachstum. (2011). Soziales Wachstum. Leitbild einer fortschrittlichen Wirtschaftspolitik. Bonn. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/08628.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2012.
van Ark, B., et al. (2009). Productivity, performance, and progress: Germany in international comparative perspective. Bonn: FES/WISO. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/06289.pdf Zugriff am 17.8.2011.
Vogel, J. (2000). Welfare production models and income structure. A comparative and longitudinal perspective. http://www.nnn.se/seminar/pdf/vogel.pdf
Wilkinson, R. G., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why more equal societies almost always do better. London: Allen Lane.
Zapf, W. (1984). Welfare production: Public versus private. Social Indicators Research, 14, 263–274.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dauderstädt, M. (2015). Welfare Production and Quality of Life. In: Glatzer, W., Camfield, L., Møller, V., Rojas, M. (eds) Global Handbook of Quality of Life. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9177-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9178-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)