Employment outcomes of social investment in latecomer countries

Abstract

This chapter tests the Matthew effect argument with regard to social inequality in employment. It analyses whether social investment policies favour low-quality jobs. For the testing of the two dimensions, employment and job quality, the chapter focuses on two particular policy areas: active labour market policies (ALMPs) and work–family policies (WFPs). The first section briefly introduces the conflicting evidence for the relationship between social investment and employment outcomes in the literature, and suggests reasons why we need to pay more attention to class differentials in employment and job quality, as well as why we need to differentiate between ALMPs and WFPs at the programme level. The second section describes the data and estimation strategy. The chapter then elaborates the results and how they meet the argument. It also suggests some political implications, then calls for a more careful policy design that allows low-income groups to benefit from social investment policy.