The State of Welfare: The Economics of Social Spending

A careful and precise presentation, from leading experts in the field, of the development of the welfare state in the UK. Looking at both historical processes and the welfare systems current state, these excellent contributors provide an authoritative analysis, packed with data. The United Kingdom had one of the oldest and most extensive welfare states in the world. The economic crisis of 1976 and eighteen years of Conservative Government have tested the welfare system to its very foundations. Much changed, yet much remained the same after two decades. Did the Conservative Government dismember the welfare state or reform it? Did the changes of the past twenty years make any difference and to whom? This second edition of the widely-acclaimed State of Welfare reviews the changing fate of social policy in the years since 1974. It details changes in policy but also charts trends in spending in real terms over the period and analyses the outcomes of spending on education, the National Health Service, the personal social services, housing and social security. There is no other consistent published time series of spending on these services over this period in real and volume terms. The General Household Survey is re-analysed to produce a common source of information on the way changes in these services have affected families. Other available sources of information on the impact of past government reforms are drawn upon to provide a comprehensive account. This completely revised edition uses the successful framework adopted in the first volume to bring the story up to the end of the Conservative Administration with the latest available expenditure figures. This adds nearly a decade to the account detailed in the first edition - a decade of remarkable change. The book is clearly structured, with core chapters covering each of the five service areas of education, health, housing, personal social services and social security, and a concluding chapter summarising the key findings of previous chapters to provide an overview of the current state of welfare. Each chapter is then subdivided, with sections on the ultimate aims of welfare policy in the particular area covered, public expenditure, the outputs for that spending, and the outcomes in terms of indicators of individual welfare. Each chapter is summarised in an in brief section at the end, and has a further reading list. Illustrated with approximately 150 figures and tables, the book presents a substantial amount of quantitative information (much of which comes from Local and Central Government sources) in accessible formats. The book contains a substantial bibliography, including many government papers as well as published books and journal articles. The book can therefore be used as a bibliographical database, besides functioning as a textbook. The State of Welfare functions as an ideal text for public economics students, or those studying social or public policy.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables List of Figures Abbreviations 1: Howard Glennerster and John Hills: Introduction 2: Howard Glennerster: New beginnings and old continuities 3: Howard Glennerster: Education: Reaping the Harvest? 4: Julian Le Grand and Polly Vizard: The National Health Service: crisis, change or continuity? 5: John Hills: Housing: A decent home within the reach of every family? 6: Maria Evandrou and Jane Falkingham: The personal social services 7: Martin Evans: Social Security: Dismantling the pyramids? 8: Howard Glennerster: Welfare with the lid on Bibliography Index

Review :
While reports of the welfare state's death have been exaggerated, what it provides has changed and will have to do so further if risking demands and costs are to be met, according to The State of Welfare, written by specialists at the London School of Economics./Nicholas Timmins/Financial Times 23 April 1998. All the detailed trends are reviewed in State of Welfare (OUP, 1998), a report by the economic and Social Research Council Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics./The Times Higher Education Supplement 7 August 1998 Opinion p11. a treasure chest. Inside are all the revelant facts and figures, as well as the detailed arguments...All the chaptersprovide a wealth of tables./Saul Becker/"Community Care"3 December 1998 Written in a clear and accessible style, every self-respecting book shelf should have a copy...The scholarly exposition of argument and policy options will be essential reading for students, who need a good single source of reference, and for academics, policy-makers and practitioners - who need to know the real facts on which to base their policiesand practice/Saul Becker/"Community Care" 3-9 Dec-1998 A key ingredient of the success of this book lies in the fact that the editors and the individual authors while being versed in the perspectives and analytical approaches of the economist are, at the same time, writing from out of a social policy stable. This has meant that not only do they write their economics in a way that is accessible to non-economists, but that they locate their economics in a wider context of political social and demographic processes These strengths, together with a relative dearth of texts covering similiar ground, will doubletts ensure that the second edition will go on to become 'essential reading' on many university modules. John Doling/University of Birmingham `'This should be a core text for all students of social policy and the development of the British welfare state...'' Aslib Book Guide, Vol.53, no.11 `'...this is an excellently updated book, packed with information to keep policy wonks and the statistically obsessed happy, but written in a style to enable everyone to get to grips with important questions about the state's caring role.'' John Appleby, Health Service Journal