ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to make a systematic comparison of the public welfare programs in the Scandinavian countries, by looking specifically at the systems of income maintenance provided by social security cash transfers. It considers the levels of temporary and permanent exit from work as the effects of a deliberate policy. The right to a social wage through institutional transfers reduces the importance of the wage as a unique parameter of labor market behavior, making it possible for individuals to satisfy needs independently, or less affected by, the work compulsion which otherwise would have existed. The income and behavior of individuals have become more independent of the logic of markets the benefits provided by the welfare state have been more closely tied to the rewards of market participation. In the international social policy literature, it is widely assumed that the Scandinavian welfare states resemble each other so much that they collectively constitute one distinct model.
