Between Income Maintenance and Activation: the legitimacy, implementation and outcomes of social security policies (TREfF-2)

• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2022). Scandinavian Social Democrats Facing The ‘Progressive Dilemma’: Immigration and Welfare States In Left-of-Centre Party Programs. Nordic Journal of Migration Research. 12(2), p. 223–239. doi: 10.33134/njmr.351. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  An increasing concern in European politics is the potential tension between immigration and inclusive welfare states, suggesting that policy actors must choose one or the other. This is known as ‘the progressive dilemma’, which in Scandinavia becomes the social democratic dilemma. This article analyses how Scandinavian social democratic parties frame immigration and welfare policies to diffuse the dilemma in their party programs. Building on a review of the sociological, political and economic arguments underpinning the notion of a progressive dilemma, I undertake a qualitative analysis of the most recent party programs, as well as targeted documents on immigration, produced by the party organisations. Six social democratic and socialist parties in Norway, Sweden and Denmark are included. The analysis identifies a variety of ways to weave welfare state issues and immigration together. Abstracting from the empirical findings, I distil three key frames that dissolve the progressive dilemma, all drawing on established social democratic traditions: the social investment frame (the third way), the redistribution frame (Marxist tradition) and the social cohesion frame (social democrats as the voice of ‘ordinary people’).

• Fekjær, Silje Bringsrud; Rasmussen, Erik Børve & Terum, Lars Inge (2022). Sanctioning the sick: Do perceptions of activating the sick and diagnosis matter? Social Policy & Administration. 56(5). doi: 10.1111/spol.12790. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The recent inclusion of behavioural conditionality in health-related benefit programmes raises questions about frontline workers' (FWs') discretionary use of sanctioning. Using an experimental vignette design in a survey of 824 FWs in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), we investigated whether FWs' perceptions of diagnosis and sick recipients' obligations affect their propensity to sanction for non-compliance. We find that the recipients' diagnoses did not influence FWs' propensity to sanction for non-compliance. Recipients with a symptom diagnosis (ME/CFS) were sanctioned to the same degree as those with a diagnosis based on objective medical evidence (Bekhterev's disease). However, FWs who generally found it difficult to impose activity requirements on recipients with health-related problems were also less prone to enact sanctions. Our results support the notion of competing approaches to activating and sanctioning the sick. FWs who agree that it is difficult to activate the sick also tend to avoid sanctioning, whereas the propensity to sanction is more widespread among those who disagree that activating the sick is difficult.

• Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Grødem, Anne Skevik (2021). From national activation legislation to local practices in Norway—Why the same law gives diverse practices. International Journal of Social Welfare. doi: 10.1111/ijsw.12513. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social policies are legislated nationally and implemented locally, and despite national attempts at vertical policy coordination, implementation varies. The aim of this article is to better understand variations in local implementation of national policies, emphasising, in particular, structural conditions. Our case is a legislative change in Norway that obliged municipalities to implement compulsory participation and conditionality for young recipients of social assistance. We conducted a comparative case study analysis in which, through 28 qualitative interviews, we compared six municipalities. We found that municipalities that have conceptualised compulsory participation as physical work and long hours in catch-all programmes are also the municipalities that sanction through benefit cuts. The municipalities that were more reluctant to cut benefits were those with the least straining requirements in terms of content and scope. We discuss local variation in terms of local-level path dependence, the size of the municipality and state supervision of municipalities.

• Barth, Erling; Moene, Karl Ove (Kalle) & Pedersen, Axel West (2021). Rising Inequality in the Egalitarian Nordics. In Fischer, Georg & Strauss, Robert (Ed.), Europe's Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality. Oxford University Press. p. 219–246. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780197545706.003.0006. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The chapter demonstrates that while the Nordic countries remain relatively affluent and egalitarian, inequality of disposable household income has been on the rise over the past 30 years. The increase in income inequality and relative income poverty has been strongest in Sweden and more modest in the three other countries. In Sweden, and, to a lesser extent, in Finland and Denmark, a reduced role for social transfers among the working age population has contributed to a decline in relative income levels enjoyed by the bottom quintile. Often in the wake of serious macro-economic downturns, politicians have reduced the generosity of social transfers to improve labour market incentives. Even if these reforms have had the intended effect on employment, the increase in earnings has not been sufficient to replace the loss of social transfers.

• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen & Leseth, Anne (2021). Time to work – opposing political rationality with young peoples’ experiences of working in a mandatory activation context in Norway. Journal of Applied Youth Studies (JAYS). 4(2), p. 153–167. doi: 10.1007/s43151-021-00031-x. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper argues that young people, targeted by activation policies, had several temporal experiences with work that can contribute to broadening our understanding of labour market policy for this group of young people. By drawing on qualitative interviews with young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in a Norwegian activation context, and by applying anthropological and sociological concepts on temporality and work time in our analysis, we question how time is constructed and reproduced in the establishment of work relations among this group of people. We argue that political discourses of work inclusion for young adults (NEETs) tend to portray work as a means to an end for inclusion. In doing so, they fail to address the complex temporal dimension of work. We find that young adults have a range of complex experiences where disparity between formal and informal aspects of work becomes visible. The temporal dimension of these experiences and the relativity of speed in getting a job are not experienced in a linear manner but as churning between getting a job, having a job, and losing a job.

• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2020). Frontline provision of integrated welfare and employment services: Organising for activation competency. International Journal of Social Welfare. 30(3), p. 280–290. doi: 10.1111/ijsw.12464. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Using the Norwegian case of an integrated welfare and employment service organisation, this study examined how organisational factors of this far-reaching, street-level agency have affected frontline workers’ opportunities to provide individualised services to users with complex needs. The article reports on two different policy and organisational settings: frontline workers as ‘generalists’ in a ‘national employment policy context’, and frontline workers as ‘specialists’ in a policy context that emphasises ‘empowering the local level’. Findings suggest that the generalists in the study did not experience an opportunity to utilise the flexibility available to them in selecting suitable measures, nor did they develop user-specific knowledge. The article argues that caseworker specialisation can create more room for discretion and professional knowledge about users and which measures should be applied, thereby improving the opportunity to tailor services in a ‘one size fits all’ organisational context.

• Leseth, Anne; Vilhena, Susana & Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2020). Aktivitetspliktens innside og utside – Unge mottakere av sosialhjelp og deres erfaringer med aktivitetsplikt. Tidsskrift for velferdsforskning. 23(2), p. 126–139. doi: 10.18261/issn.0809-2052-2020-02-04. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  From January 2017, all Norwegian social assistance benefit recipientsunder the age of 30 are required to participate in work-related activities. Reciprocity is presented as a political justification for this requirement. But what does this mean for the target group? Drawing on qualitative interviews with young benefit recipients in Norway, this article investigates how they experience mandatory activation. Two dimensionsare particularly visiblein ourdata: (1) mandatory activation as a social practice, and (2) mandatory activation as a sanctioning practice that relates to the benefit amount and the reduction of it in case of no-show. We explore these dimensions as the inside and the outside of mandatory activation, respectively. We argue that mandatory activation can be understood as a morality of exchange, that is a valuation system consisting of a continuum of different forms of reciprocity. On the one hand, the activity requirementcan provide opportunities for young benefit recipients to overcome a difficult situation and get closer to work life. On the other hand, the close follow-up developed by the NAV offices (the inside) combined with benefit sanctions (the outside) represents ambiguity that can restrict the young adults’ efforts to be responsible and self-sufficient.

• Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald (2019). The Role of Employer-Provided Sick Pay in Britain and Norway. Research in Labor Economics. 47, p. 227–252. doi: 10.1108/S0147-912120190000047008. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Higher replacement rates often imply higher levels of absenteeism, yet even in generous welfare economies, employers provide sick pay in addition to the public sick pay. Using comparative population-representative workplace data for Britain and Norway we show that close to 50% of private sector employers in both countries provide sick pay in excess of statutory sick pay. However, the level of statutory sick pay is also much higher in Norway than in Britain. In both countries, private sick pay as well as other benefits provided by employers are chosen by employers in a way that- maximizes profits having accounted for different dimensions of labour costs. Several health-related privately provided benefits are often bundled. In both countries easy-to-train workers, high turnover and risky work are linked to less extensive employer provision of extended sick leave and sick pay in excess of statutory sick pay. In contrast, the presence of a trade union agreement is strongly correlated with both the provision of private sick pay and extended sick leave in Britain but not in Norway. We show that the sickness absence rate is much higher in Norway than in Britain. However, the higher level of absenteeism in Norway compared to Britain relates to the threshold for statutory sick pay in the Norwegian public sick pay legislation. When we take this difference into account, no significant difference remains.

• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (2019). Majoritarian systems, rural groups, and (arrested) welfare state development. International Political Science Review. doi: 10.1177/0192512118809106. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  While some scholars suggest that rural groups contribute to welfare state expansion, we highlight their incentives to restrain it. The ability of rural groups to achieve this preference hinges on their power resources, but also on the electoral system. We propose that in majoritarian systems, rural groups can often veto welfare legislation. In proportional systems this is less feasible, even for resource-rich groups. Instead, agrarian groups sometimes accept welfare legislation in return for other policy-concessions in post-electoral bargaining. We illustrate the argument with British and Norwegian historical experiences, and test the implications using panel data from 96 democracies. We find evidence that resourceful agrarian groups effectively arrest welfare state development in majoritarian systems, but not in proportional systems. As expected, the electoral system matters less for welfare state expansion when agrarian groups are weak. The results are robust to using alternative estimators, measures, samples and model specifications.

• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2019). Familier og barn. In Bay, Ann-Helén; Hatland, Aksel; Hellevik, Tale & Terum, Lars Inge (Ed.), Trygd i aktiveringens tid. Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 160–175. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik & Vilhena, Susana (2019). Samhandling i frontlinjen på NAV-kontoret. In Bay, Ann-Helén; Hatland, Aksel; Hellevik, Tale & Terum, Lars Inge (Ed.), Trygd i aktiveringens tid. Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 294–310. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik & Terum, Lars Inge (2019). Kommunal inntektssikring. In Bay, Ann-Helén; Hatland, Aksel; Hellevik, Tale & Terum, Lars Inge (Ed.), Trygd i aktiveringens tid. Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 251–268. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle & Kumlin, Staffan (2019). Downbound spiral? Economic grievances, perceived social protection and political distrust. West European Politics. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2019.1596733. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Momentous events in Western democracies have brought renewed attention to how various aspects of government-controlled policy outputs and outcomes affect citizens’ trust in politics. Unlike most previous research, this study uses individual-level panel data to test the link between government performance evaluations and political trust. Moreover, it gauges performance in more policy areas than previous research, including key aspects of government-controlled social services as well as a wide range of economic risks. The study finds that evaluations of government performance affect political trust but that the evidence is stronger for evaluations of social protection than for economic risks. Crucially, the analysis suggests that the relationship between performance evaluations and distrust is reciprocal. The relationship may be described as a ‘downbound spiral’ where dissatisfied groups develop distrust, which in turn makes for a more pessimistic interpretation of economic risks and welfare state performance.

• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2019). Profesjoner. In Brodtkorb, Elisabeth & Rugkåsa, Marianne (Ed.), Mellom mennesker og samfunn : sosiologi og sosialantropologi for helse- og sosialprofesjonene. Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 41–61. Full text in Research Archive
• Haugsgjerd, Atle & Kumlin, Staffan (2019). Konsensus om den norske velferdsstaten? In Bergh, Johannes & Aardal, Bernt (Ed.), Velgere og valgkamp. En studie av stortingsvalget 2017. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. p. 201–222. Full text in Research Archive
• Bay, Ann-Helén; Hatland, Aksel; Pedersen, Axel West & Terum, Lars Inge (2019). Kapittel 1: Trygd, arbeid og aktivering. In Bay, Ann-Helén; Hatland, Aksel; Hellevik, Tale & Terum, Lars Inge (Ed.), Trygd i aktiveringens tid. Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 13–32. Full text in Research Archive
• Eriksen, Andreas & Molander, Anders (2018). Welfare reform and public justification. Policy Studies. p. 1–20. doi: 10.1080/01442872.2018.1538487. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper investigates the conditions of political argument with regard to welfare legislation. It connects to the discussion on the role of ideas in political change but develops a new approach by investigating arguments in light of theories of public justification in a democratic society. The paper uses a recent Norwegian law as the case for studying how politicians frame their arguments for “mandatory activation,” meaning the policy that requires recipients to participate in work-oriented activities. The paper finds that Norwegian advocates of activation use a “justificatory narrative” that presents the new law as a form of paternalistic concern for the benefit recipients. It is argued that this justification can be understood as shaped by certain basic conditions of political viability.

• Eriksen, Andreas (2018). Reclaiming Responsibility: The Case of Welfare-to-Work Policy. Journal of Social Policy. p. 1–18. doi: 10.1017/S0047279418000612. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Welfare-to-work programmes have a contested normative foundation. Critics argue that ‘citizen responsibility’ is being promoted to the sacrifice of more important social values, such as solidarity and fairness. This paper seeks to recapture what is valuable in citizen responsibility and to challenge the idea that the concept is intrinsically bound up with detrimental policy strategies. The paper develops a view of the responsible citizen as an appropriate addressee of moral expectations. This view highlights how addressing someone as responsible involves a presumption of reasonableness. Thereafter, the view is applied to conditions of street-level interaction, the design of policy instruments, and political discourse.

• Godøy, Anna Aasen & Dale-Olsen, Harald (2018). Spillovers from gatekeeping – Peer effects in absenteeism. Journal of Public Economics. 167, p. 190–204. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.08.015. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We study peer effects in absenteeism among workplace colleagues. Gatekeeping is an essential task in many insurance systems. In this study we exploit exogenous shifts of general practitioners (GPs) occurring when physicians quit or retire. We find that these shifts induce changes in absenteeism for affected workers. By utilizing high-quality Norwegian matched employer-employee data with detailed individual information on certified sick leave during the period 2003–2012, we can study how the transfer of workers between GPs affects co-workers’ absenteeism. We identify strong causal positive peer effects in absenteeism: a one day change in focal worker sickness absence transfers to a 0.41 day shift in peer absence.

• Terum, Lars Inge; Torsvik, Gaute & Øverbye, Einar (2018). Discrimination against ethnic minorities in activation programme? Evidence from a vignette experiment. Journal of Social Policy. 47(1), p. 39–56. doi: 10.1017/S0047279417000113. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We conducted a vignette experiment involving 470 Norwegian front-line workers to investigate whether their decisions to sanction non-compliance of activation requirements varied with the ethnicity of the welfare claimant. This is the first vignette experiment on ethnic discrimination in the administration of activation programmes in Europe. The study shows that front-line workers did not sanction claimants with a North African name more often than claimants with a native Norwegian name. However, among front-line workers who had experience with the relevant activation programme, a male claimant with a North African name was sanctioned less often than a male claimant with a native Norwegian name. Thus, we find some degree of reverse discrimination on the part of experienced front-line workers. This finding is contrary to a similar US vignette experiment that detected discrimination (not reverse discrimination) with regard to claimants with an ethnic minority name. The most likely explanation for the difference concerns the different institutional-cultural contexts within which Norwegian and US social policy programmes operate.

• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus (2018). The Autocratic Welfare State: Old-Age Pensions, Credible Commitments, and Regime Survival. Comparative Political Studies. 51(5), p. 659–695. doi: 10.1177/0010414017710265. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we argue that autocratic regimes are no less likely than democracies to adopt old-age pensions, although autocratic programs are less universal in their coverage. Our theoretical argument focuses on the strong incentives that autocratic regimes have for enacting and maintaining such programs to ensure regime survival. Autocratic pension programs can be considered club goods that (a) are targeted to critical supporting groups and (b) solve credible commitment problems on promises of future distribution, thereby mitigating probability of regime breakdown. We test three implications from the argument, drawing on a novel dataset on welfare state programs and including 140 countries with time series from the 1880s. First, we find that autocracies are no less likely than democracies to have old-age pension programs. But, second, autocracies have less universal pension programs than democracies. Third, pension programs effectively reduce the probability of autocratic breakdown.

• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus (2017). The Autocratic Welfare State: Resource distribution, credible commitments and political survival. Comparative Political Studies. doi: 10.1177/0010414017710265. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we argue that autocratic regimes are no less likely than democracies to adopt old-age pensions, although autocratic programs are less universal in their coverage. Our theoretical argument focuses on the strong incentives that autocratic regimes have for enacting and maintaining such programs to ensure regime survival. Autocratic pension programs can be considered club goods that (a) are targeted to critical supporting groups and (b) solve credible commitment problems on promises of future distribution, thereby mitigating probability of regime breakdown. We test three implications from the argument, drawing on a novel dataset on welfare state programs and including 140 countries with time series from the 1880s. First, we find that autocracies are no less likely than democracies to have old-age pension programs. But, second, autocracies have less universal pension programs than democracies. Third, pension programs effectively reduce the probability of autocratic breakdown.

• Grødem, Anne Skevik & Hatland, Aksel (2017). Family and Working Life in the Nordic Countries. In Petersen, Klaus; Kuhnle, Stein; Otsuka, Yoko; Kettunen, Pauli & Kamiko, Akio (Ed.), The Nordic Welfare Model: Still Sustainable? Five Exceptions and Policy Cooperation. Minerva Shobou. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Farvel til den barnevennlige velferdsstaten? In Bendiksen, Stian Carstens; Helseth, Sverre & Lundgren, Charlotte (Ed.), Oppvekstrapporten 2017. Økte forskjeller - gjør det noe?. Barne-, ungdoms- og familiedirektoratet. p. 184–200. Full text in Research Archive
• Brochmann, Grete & Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Den norske modellens møte med innvandring - et regime i endring. In Stamsø, Mary Ann (Eds.), Velferdsstaten i endring : Om norsk helse- og sosialpolitikk (3. utg). Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 362–381. Full text in Research Archive
• Terum, Lars Inge & Adler, Michael (2017). Austerity, conditionality and litigation in six European countries. In Matteucci, Stefano Civitarese & Halliday, Simon (Ed.), Social rights in Europe in an age of austerity. Routledge. p. 147–177. doi: 10.4324/9781315204574-7. Full text in Research Archive
• Kumlin, Staffan; Stadelmann-Steffen, Isabelle & Haugsgjerd, Atle (2017). Trust and the Welfare State. In Uslaner, Eric M. (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Social and Political Trust (online version published January 2017). Oxford University Press. p. 385–408. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274801.013.8. Full text in Research Archive
• Kumlin, Staffan & Haugsgjerd, Atle (2017). The Welfare State and Political Trust: Bringing Performance Back In. In Zmerli, Sonja & Meer, Tom van der (Ed.), Handbook on Political Trust. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 285–301. Full text in Research Archive
• Finseraas, Henning & Kotsadam, Andreas (2017). Ancestry Culture and Female Employment - An Analysis Using Second-Generation Siblings. European Sociological Review. 33(3), p. 382–392. doi: 10.1093/esr/jcx048. Full text in Research Archive
• Pedersen, Axel West & Kuhnle, Stein (2017). The Nordic welfare state model. In Knutsen, Oddbjørn P. (Eds.), The Nordic Models in Political Science : Challenged, but Still Viable?. Fagbokforlaget. p. 219–238. Full text in Research Archive
• Rasmussen, Magnus & Pontusson, Jonas (2017). Working-Class Strength by Institutional Design? Unionization, Partisan Politics, and Unemployment Insurance Systems, 1870 to 2010. Comparative Political Studies. 51(6), p. 793–828. doi: 10.1177/0010414017710269. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Many studies have found that countries with union-administered unemployment insurance have higher rates of unionization than countries with state-administered unemployment insurance. With data going further back in history, this article demonstrates that the introduction of so-called “Ghent systems” had no effect on unionization rates. We argue that the Ghent effect identified by the existing literature came about as a result of increasing state subsidization and benefit generosity in the 1950s and 1960s. Exploring the partisan politics of unemployment insurance, we show that progressive Liberals (“Social Liberals”) favored Ghent designs while Social Democrats favored state-administered unemployment insurance before the Second World War. We also present some evidence suggesting that Left governments, inheriting Ghent systems that were not of their choosing, promoted state subsidization in the postwar era and thus helped generate the Ghent effect identified by the existing literature.

• Pedersen, Axel West (2017). Norsk trygdepolitikk i internasjonalt perspektiv. In Stamsø, Mary Ann (Eds.), Velferdsstaten i endring : Om norsk helse- og sosialpolitikk (3. utg). Gyldendal Akademisk. p. 382–401. Full text in Research Archive
• Terum, Lars Inge; Torsvik, Gaute & Øverbye, Einar (2017). Når vilkår og aktivitetskrav brytes. Frontlinjearbeideres tilnærming til sanksjoner. Søkelys på arbeidslivet. 34(3), p. 147–166. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-7989-2017-03-01. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Frontlinjearbeiderne i NAV skal avklare behov og rettigheter, men også stille krav, aktivere og sanksjonere. Artikkelen studerer hvordan frontlinjearbeidere tilnærmer seg situasjoner der stønadsmottakere ikke imøtekommer vilkår og aktivitetskrav, og i hvilken grad disse blir sanksjonert. Studien viser at når aktivitetskrav brytes, legger frontlinjearbeiderne stor vekt på å klargjøre om stønadsmottakerne hadde forutsetninger for å kunne imøtekomme vilkårene, snarere enn å sanksjonere. Når vilkårene oppfattes som rimelige og stønadsmottakeren er informert og advart på tilfredsstillende måte, sanksjonerer imidlertid frontlinjearbeiderne i betydelig grad brudd på aktivitetskravene.

• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Family-oriented policies in Scandinavia and the challenge of immigration. Journal of European Social Policy. 27(1), p. 77–89. doi: 10.1177/0958928716673315. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The social political debate on immigration as a challenge to the welfare states has been remarkably silent on gender and family issues. This article argues that immigrants’ use of welfare benefits targeted at families may be particularly problematic, because such benefits embody certain normative tensions that other social policies do not. It is suggested that tensions may be particularly high in Scandinavia, given the Scandinavian countries’ long-term commitment to facilitating employment for women. What happens when immigrants in the Scandinavian countries use policies targeted at families to maintain gender-complimentary family practices and home-based motherhood? Will such practices be met by reforms that streamline benefits around the principle of universal employment? The article highlights policy arrangements that have been described as detrimental to immigrant women’s employment in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and reviews whether they have been reformed in recent years and, where relevant, what arguments have been used to motivate reforms. The analysis shows that many of the relevant benefits recently have been reformed to become less accommodating of home-based care work. However, politics clearly matter, and it is not given that immigrants’ use of benefits will always be a trump card. Also, dynamics vary according to how controversial the welfare arrangement in question was before it was highlighted as an immigrant issue. A third finding is that even when benefit arrangements that have been highlighted as particularly detrimental to immigrant women’s employment are targeted, politicians often downplay the integration issue when arguing for reform.

• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2016). Migration as a Challenge to the Nordic Welfare States. In Veggeland, Noralv (Eds.), The Current Nordic Welfare State Model. Nova Science Publishers. p. 149–170. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2016). Fra Castberg til Solberg: Aleneforsørgernes vekst og fall i norsk sosialpolitikk. Sosiologisk Tidsskrift. 24(4), p. 303–326. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-2928-2016-04-03. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I 2015 var det 100 år siden de såkalte Castbergske barnelovene ble vedtatt. Hensikten med denne artikkelen er å gjennomgå utviklingen fra 1915 til 2015 med vekt på konfliktdimensjoner, verdier og vurderinger i ulike perioder. Hva sto på spill da de første spede ordningene for ugifte mødre ble etablert i 1915, og hvordan har dette endret seg gjennom 100 år? Hva – om noe – taler for at vi fortsatt trenger et eget sett av ordninger for enslige foreldre i 2015? Det første spørsmålet belyses gjennom en historisk gjennomgang av ordningene, det siste gjennom en diskusjon av moderne familiepolitikk og familiemønstre, med et særlig blikk på utfordringene i minoritetsfamilier.

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• Bay, Ann-Helén; Hatland, Aksel; Hellevik, Tale & Terum, Lars Inge (2019). Trygd i aktiveringens tid. Gyldendal Akademisk. 370 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Brochmann, Grete & Grødem, Anne Skevik (2019). Absorption Capacity as Means for Assessing Sustainable Immigration. EMN Norway Occasional Paper. European Migration Network Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Terum, Lars Inge & Sadeghi, Talieh (2019). Medarbeidernes kompetanse ved NAV-kontorene: Endringer i utdanningsbakgrunn, læring på arbeidsplassen og kompetanse, 2011-2018. OsloMet - storbyuniversitetet. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2016). The Nordic Welfare Model and the Refugee Crisis: Buffer or Weakness? OECD Insights Blog. OECD. Full text in Research Archive

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• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2019). Welfare Conditionality for young benefit recipients - Towards Individual Problem Explanations in an Encompassing Welfare State? Full text in Research Archive
• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen & Strand, Anne Hege Henden (2019). Between employmer needs and client needs – Tackling a new role for the street-level organization. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2019). Hvordan få flere i arbeid i Norge? Full text in Research Archive
• Terum, Lars Inge & Sadeghi, Talieh (2019). Medarbeidernes kompetanse ved NAV-kontorene. Full text in Research Archive
• Terum, Lars Inge & Sadeghi, Talieh (2019). Sosialarbeidere taper terreng. [Journal]. velferd.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen; Jakobsen, Siw Ellen & Leseth, Anne (2019). Flere unge blir uføretrygdet når NAV stiller krav. [Internet]. https://forskning.no/arbeid/flere-unge-blir-uforetrygdet-nar. Full text in Research Archive
• Leseth, Anne & Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2019). "All I want now is to get a job, so that I can prove something" Experiences and conceptualization of work amoung Young social Assistant recipients in Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2019). Progressives facing the “progressive’s dilemma”: acknowledge, reject or redefine? Full text in Research Archive
• Dale-Olsen, Harald (2018). Økte ulikheter med sykelønnskutt? 107(5), p. 40–41. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Sykelønnskutt vil trolig ramme svake grupper hardere enn mer attraktive arbeidstakere. Dermed kan kutt i sykelønna bidra til økte ulikheter i samfunnet.

• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2018). "I believe that mandatory activation is a tool to help people further" – front line workers’ experiences with mandatory activation in Norway (presentation of working paper co-written with Anne Leseth and Susana Vilhena). Full text in Research Archive
• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2018). Komplekse vurderinger i førstelinjen – arbeidsevnevurdering som aktiveringspolitisk virkemiddel. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2018). Hvem har rett til offentlig forsørgelse? Velferdsdebatt etter finanskrise og migrantkrise. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2018). Familiepolitikk i endring? Betydningen av innvandring og integrering. Full text in Research Archive
• Pedersen, Axel West (2018). Norsk velferdspolitikk. Nordisk modell konservert i olje(penger)? Full text in Research Archive
• Dale-Olsen, Harald & Godøy, Anna Aasen (2018). Kollegaens fastlege påvirker ditt sykefravær. p. 12–13. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Økning i sykefravær kan bli en ond sirkel på en arbeidsplass. På samme måte kan vellykkede tiltak for å redusere sykefraværet også blir selvforsterkende. Fastlegen kan ha en kjempeviktig rolle i dette.

• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2018). Bort fra rettighetstenkningen? NAV-veilederes håndtering av aktivitetskrav og sanksjoner overfor trygde- og sosialhjelpsmottakere. Full text in Research Archive
• Eriksen, Andreas (2017). Bokanmeldelse: New Contractualism in European Welfare State Policies. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS). 58(3), p. 357–360. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-291X-2017-03-08. Full text in Research Archive
• Pedersen, Axel West (2017). Norge, last man standing? Nordisk likhet under press. Full text in Research Archive
• Frøjd, Elise Koppang & Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2017). Utfordrende oppgaver for NAVs førstelinjearbeidere. [Internet]. Viten og praksis. Full text in Research Archive
• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2017). Client participation in activation schemes within a holistic street-level service. Full text in Research Archive
• Kumlin, Staffan (2017). Could the Political Consequences of Class Marginalization Be Different? The Political Quarterly. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Lav sysselsetting blant innvandrere i Norge. Årsaker og konsekvenser. Full text in Research Archive
• Vilhena, Susana (2017). Conditionality in social assistance in Norway and Portugal. Full text in Research Archive
• Vilhena, Susana (2017). The practice of social work in social assistance: understanding the implementation of active conditions and sanctions in Norway and Portugal. Full text in Research Archive
• Pedersen, Axel West (2017). Inequality trends in the Nordic countries: The role of social security retrenchment. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Migrasjon som utfordring for den norske velferdsmodellen. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Høy migrasjon som utfordring for velferdsstaten: Integrasjon, samhold og tillit. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Etter gullalderen. Fra generøs velferdsstat til nidkjær aktiveringsstat? Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Integrasjon og tillit. Refleksjoner over NOU 2017:2. Full text in Research Archive
• Grødem, Anne Skevik (2017). Integrasjon og tillit. Full text in Research Archive
• Rasmussen, Magnus (2017). Forskning viser at: Velgerne går til høyre i nedgangstider. Full text in Research Archive
• Vilhena, Susana (2017). Conditionality variations in social assistance: the case of Norway and Portugal. Full text in Research Archive
• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus (2017). Offering pensions can help autocrats stay in power longer. Full text in Research Archive
• Rasmussen, Magnus & Knutsen, Carl Henrik (2017). Party Institutionalization and Welfare State Development. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We propose that the extent to which political parties are institutionalized shapes welfare state development. Institutionalized parties allow politicians to overcome coordination problems, avoid capture by special interests, and form stable linkages with broad social groups. These features enable and incentivize politicians to pursue generous and universal welfare policies. Employing recent measures of party institutionalization and welfare law features, we test implications from our argument on data covering from 169 countries and extending back to 1900. Even when accounting for country- and year-fixed effects and institutional features such as electoral system, regime type and state capacity, we find very robust evidence that party institutionalization leads to more extensive, universal, and generous welfare arrangements. The relationship is more pronounced in democracies, but exists also in autocracies. When disaggregating party institutionalization and evaluating mechanisms, the linkages that institutionalized parties form with social groups constitute one important, but not the only relevant, factor.

• Rasmussen, Magnus; Jensen, Carsten & Andersen, David (2017). Suffering from Suffrage: Welfare State Development and the Politics of Negative Conditionality. Full text in Research Archive
• Gjersøe, Heidi Moen (2017). Client participation in activation schemes within a holistic street-level service. Full text in Research Archive
• Vilhena, Susana (2016). Understanding sanctions in social assistance in Norway and Portugal. Full text in Research Archive
• Pedersen, Axel West (2016). Det finske borgelønnseksperimentet. En kommentar. Full text in Research Archive

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