Papers by Matthew E Carnes
PS: Political Science & Politics
To determine whether our undergraduate curriculum fulfills the pedagogical goals of our departmen... more To determine whether our undergraduate curriculum fulfills the pedagogical goals of our department, the authors conducted a semester-long curriculum assessment. This article discusses five main lessons and three lingering questions to demonstrate potential benefits of curriculum assessment and to prompt further disciplinary conversation about how undergraduate teaching should be structured. The overarching lesson, however, is that although student needs may be quite diverse, an emphasis on core aspects of the program can yield better training for all undergraduates.
Journal of European Social Policy
Since the 2002 Barcelona summit, Germany has been seen as a regional leader in achieving European... more Since the 2002 Barcelona summit, Germany has been seen as a regional leader in achieving European states' shared commitment to increase state-funded childcare. Yet Germany's childcare success has not been homogenous across its Länder; rather, it has shown remarkable subnational variation, with considerable differences in spending, policy design, and coverage. Using panel data analysis and historical narratives, this paper provides an explanation for variation in provision of state-financed childcare for children under three years of age. We argue that competing visions of childcare at the subnational level-driven by the demands of differing numbers of women in the workforce and religious beliefs, and channeled by local government partisanship-have served as powerful constraints on convergence. Left partisanship and increased participation of women in the labor force are associated with higher provision of under-three childcare, while larger Catholic populations are correlated with less extensive statefunded childcare.
Hispanic American Historical Review
... In the Argentinean context, the ruling Partido Justicialista (PJ), and especially its Kirchne... more ... In the Argentinean context, the ruling Partido Justicialista (PJ), and especially its Kirchner-led Frente para la Victoria (FPV) ... Auguste and Urbiztondo (2007) argue that remaining “indeciso” (for new job market entrants) had become a rational option. ...
ABSTRACT Abstract will be provided by author.
The effects of deindustrialization on the design of social protection institutions has been a cen... more The effects of deindustrialization on the design of social protection institutions has been a central theme in the literature on comparative welfare states in advanced industrialized countries over the last decade. This growing body of research has attempted to map out the consequences of a new, post-industrial economic context-characterized by high rates of unemployment, high levels of atypical and part-time employment, and growing family instability-for existing policies of social protection that were established during the "industrial" age. In this paper, we propose a new coalitional explanation linking the changes in employment status produced by deindustrialization with changes in preferences over the design of policies of social protection. Empirically, we test the relative explanatory power of competing theories with data from Latin America, a region that has experienced a contraction in agricultural and manufacturing employment that equals in magnitude the deindustrialization experienced by advanced industrialized economies. Our paper examines the impact of this structural change on two measures of social policy change: (1) levels of social spending, and (2) policy design, as measured by the policy mix between Bismarckian contributory programs, financed by payroll taxes, and Beveridgean programs, financed by general tax revenues. We find little support for the existing literature's expectation of a positive relationship between de-industrialization and social spending, but robust support for our hypothesis linking de-industrialization and the introduction of non-contributory health and old-age insurance policies. For research assistance, we are grateful to Boliang Zhu. We are grateful to Timothy Frye and Victoria Murillo for comments on the paper.
The provision of social insurance in Latin America has undergone rapid and significant changes in... more The provision of social insurance in Latin America has undergone rapid and significant changes in recent years. After a strong swing toward private solutions in the 1990s, many countries have moved decisively in the opposite direction in the 2000s. Publicly-funded initiatives – including tax-financed, non-contributory benefits – have taken on new prominence in the “policy-mix” of public and private offerings in a wide set of countries. Surprisingly, this return of the state has enjoyed broad-based popular support. Why? Using survey data from eighteen Latin American countries, this paper documents the decisive role that employment vulnerability and income sensitivity play in determining the recent, individual-level demand for public (rather than private) provision of social policy. It finds that exposure to labor-market risks, both at the individual and household-level, is strongly associated with support for public options. In contrast, household income – long held to be a major fac...
ABSTRACT Abstract will be provided by author.
Latin American Politics and Society, 2014
Labor market dualism—the segmentation of workers between formal, legally protected employment and... more Labor market dualism—the segmentation of workers between formal, legally protected employment and informal, unprotected status—has long drawn attention from scholars and policymakers in Latin America. This article argues that lasting patterns of economic and political segmentation of workers arose earlier in the region’s history than has previously been understood, well before the classic “incorporation” period. Late-nineteenth-century practices for the recruitment and retention of workers shaped Latin America’s first sets of labor laws, most notably those governing union organization and individual worker job stability. Subsequently, these first laws served as important templates for development, constraining and conditioning the labor codes adopted under mass-based politics. Using historical data drawn from Chile, Peru, and Argentina, this article shows how differing recruitment practices and variation in the extension of effective suffrage rights and electoral participation shape...
The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America, 2014
The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America, 2014
The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America, 2014
The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America, 2014
papers.ssrn.com
While political scientists have devoted considerable effort to understanding the dynamics of refo... more While political scientists have devoted considerable effort to understanding the dynamics of reforms to welfare policy and state spending, they have not yet adequately explained persistent cross-national labor code variation. This paper develops a theory based on labor market characteristics, worker organization, and political institutions to explain intraregional variation in labor laws within Latin America. Statistical evidence employing an original coding of labor law provisions for eighteen countries confirms the importance of worker skill levels and organizational ability in accounting for labor code differences, as well as provides weaker results on the importance of regime type and partisan politics.
Annual Review of Political Science, 2009
Drawing on recent work and data on social protection in the developing world, this essay evaluate... more Drawing on recent work and data on social protection in the developing world, this essay evaluates the current state of the art and suggests several important new lines of research. We first examine the historical origin and evolution of social protection systems in developing countries, arguing that insufficient attention has been paid to the authoritarian roots of developing nations' social
Annual Review of Political Science, 2009
Drawing on recent work and data on social protection in the developing world, this essay evaluate... more Drawing on recent work and data on social protection in the developing world, this essay evaluates the current state of the art and suggests several important new lines of research. We first examine the historical origin and evolution of social protection systems in developing countries, arguing that insufficient attention has been paid to the authoritarian roots of developing nations' social
The provision of social insurance in Latin America has undergone rapid and significant changes in... more The provision of social insurance in Latin America has undergone rapid and significant changes in recent years. After a strong swing toward private solutions in the 1990s, many countries have moved decisively in the opposite direction in the 2000s. Publicly-funded initiatives – including tax-financed, non-contributory benefits – have taken on new prominence in the “policy-mix” of public and private offerings in a wide set of countries. Surprisingly, this return of the state has enjoyed broad-based popular support. Why? Using survey data from eighteen Latin American countries, this paper documents the decisive role that employment vulnerability and income sensitivity play in determining the recent, individual-level demand for public (rather than private) provision of social policy. It finds that exposure to labor-market risks, both at the individual and household-level, is strongly associated with support for public options. In contrast, household income – long held to be a major fac...
Handbook of Comparative Politics, 2007
Over the last few decades of the twentieth century, the literature examining cross-national varia... more Over the last few decades of the twentieth century, the literature examining cross-national variation in the development of policies of social protection has been one of the most dynamic Welds of research in comparative politics. The sustained effort of sociologists, political scientists, and economists to understand the causes and consequences of different welfare states has generated a vast literature that is methodologically eclectic and theoretically vibrant. The accumulation of findings in this literature has fruitfully illuminated one of the most significant achievements of modern states: the ability to protect citizens from poverty in the event of sickness, old age, and unemployment.
Advanced industrialized economies have been at the center of the empirical investigation of policies of social protection. This was a natural starting point, due to the magnitude and importance of the welfare state in these economies, which accounts for as much as 30 to 65 percent of GDP. Based on these cases, the literature developed important insights by noting that social policies clustered in distinct ‘‘families of nations’’ or ‘‘worlds of welfare capitalism’’ (Esping-Andersen 1990; Castles 1993; Huber and Stephens 2001). Nevertheless, important theoretical disagreement continues to exist about the relative importance of different political factors in explaining the diversity of observed policies and their distributional implications.
In this essay, we argue that the most exciting research opportunities in the study of welfare states lie in examining the variation in policies of social protection in developing economies. Scholars of the welfare state need to broaden the scope of their analysis. In recent decades, policies of social protection in many developing economies have experienced a dramatic transformation. Two trends in the evolution of these policies require a systematic explanation. First, welfare states in developing countries have not unilaterally evolved towards a neo-liberal, residualistic model of social protection characterized by limited coverage and a private provision of benefits. While some Latin American countries have partially or fully privatized their old-age insurance programs, other economies — such as those of Taiwan or Korea — have enacted universal social insurance programs granting benefits to all citizens (Wong 2004). Second, we Wnd strong variation across policy areas in the evolution and distributional implications of these policies. In distributional terms, health care policies have been more progressive than have pension policies — an outcome that holds true for policy changes both in Latin America and in East Asia.
These recent changes offer an important challenge to welfare state scholars. Are existing theories, based on the examples of advanced industrial economies, able to explain the recent transformations experienced by welfare states in developing countries? Which explanatory variables fare better than others and, if so, why? If existing explanations cannot account for the puzzling outcomes noted above, what should be the building blocks of explanations that can account for the divergence in social policy trajectories? This essay surveys the major approaches employed in study of the welfare state and evaluates the capacity of these theories to explain the bifurcated trajectory of reform experienced by social policies around the world.
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Papers by Matthew E Carnes
Advanced industrialized economies have been at the center of the empirical investigation of policies of social protection. This was a natural starting point, due to the magnitude and importance of the welfare state in these economies, which accounts for as much as 30 to 65 percent of GDP. Based on these cases, the literature developed important insights by noting that social policies clustered in distinct ‘‘families of nations’’ or ‘‘worlds of welfare capitalism’’ (Esping-Andersen 1990; Castles 1993; Huber and Stephens 2001). Nevertheless, important theoretical disagreement continues to exist about the relative importance of different political factors in explaining the diversity of observed policies and their distributional implications.
In this essay, we argue that the most exciting research opportunities in the study of welfare states lie in examining the variation in policies of social protection in developing economies. Scholars of the welfare state need to broaden the scope of their analysis. In recent decades, policies of social protection in many developing economies have experienced a dramatic transformation. Two trends in the evolution of these policies require a systematic explanation. First, welfare states in developing countries have not unilaterally evolved towards a neo-liberal, residualistic model of social protection characterized by limited coverage and a private provision of benefits. While some Latin American countries have partially or fully privatized their old-age insurance programs, other economies — such as those of Taiwan or Korea — have enacted universal social insurance programs granting benefits to all citizens (Wong 2004). Second, we Wnd strong variation across policy areas in the evolution and distributional implications of these policies. In distributional terms, health care policies have been more progressive than have pension policies — an outcome that holds true for policy changes both in Latin America and in East Asia.
These recent changes offer an important challenge to welfare state scholars. Are existing theories, based on the examples of advanced industrial economies, able to explain the recent transformations experienced by welfare states in developing countries? Which explanatory variables fare better than others and, if so, why? If existing explanations cannot account for the puzzling outcomes noted above, what should be the building blocks of explanations that can account for the divergence in social policy trajectories? This essay surveys the major approaches employed in study of the welfare state and evaluates the capacity of these theories to explain the bifurcated trajectory of reform experienced by social policies around the world.
Advanced industrialized economies have been at the center of the empirical investigation of policies of social protection. This was a natural starting point, due to the magnitude and importance of the welfare state in these economies, which accounts for as much as 30 to 65 percent of GDP. Based on these cases, the literature developed important insights by noting that social policies clustered in distinct ‘‘families of nations’’ or ‘‘worlds of welfare capitalism’’ (Esping-Andersen 1990; Castles 1993; Huber and Stephens 2001). Nevertheless, important theoretical disagreement continues to exist about the relative importance of different political factors in explaining the diversity of observed policies and their distributional implications.
In this essay, we argue that the most exciting research opportunities in the study of welfare states lie in examining the variation in policies of social protection in developing economies. Scholars of the welfare state need to broaden the scope of their analysis. In recent decades, policies of social protection in many developing economies have experienced a dramatic transformation. Two trends in the evolution of these policies require a systematic explanation. First, welfare states in developing countries have not unilaterally evolved towards a neo-liberal, residualistic model of social protection characterized by limited coverage and a private provision of benefits. While some Latin American countries have partially or fully privatized their old-age insurance programs, other economies — such as those of Taiwan or Korea — have enacted universal social insurance programs granting benefits to all citizens (Wong 2004). Second, we Wnd strong variation across policy areas in the evolution and distributional implications of these policies. In distributional terms, health care policies have been more progressive than have pension policies — an outcome that holds true for policy changes both in Latin America and in East Asia.
These recent changes offer an important challenge to welfare state scholars. Are existing theories, based on the examples of advanced industrial economies, able to explain the recent transformations experienced by welfare states in developing countries? Which explanatory variables fare better than others and, if so, why? If existing explanations cannot account for the puzzling outcomes noted above, what should be the building blocks of explanations that can account for the divergence in social policy trajectories? This essay surveys the major approaches employed in study of the welfare state and evaluates the capacity of these theories to explain the bifurcated trajectory of reform experienced by social policies around the world.