Pavolini, E., Jessoula, M., & Natili, M. (2024). The political economy of fiscal welfare. In Handbook on the Political Economy of Social Policy (pp. 141-152). Edward Elgar Publishing. [Link]

Abstract

Research in social policy has been greatly influenced by the emergence of modern political economy in the late 1970s. The Handbook on the Political Economy of Social Policy offers a systematic, yet comprehensive, framework for understanding how concepts, theoretical standpoints and methodological approaches stemming from political economy have been applied to the study of social policies, and models of welfare provision. The authors also signpost current developments and discuss their likely impact on future research.

The chapter illustrates the role of fiscal welfare contemporary political economies. It presents a definition of fiscal welfare and related concepts. It provides empirical insights on the size and role of fiscal welfare, and on the reasons explaining why fiscal welfare represents an important tool for policymakers. Finally, it focuses on the distributional effects of tax expenditures.