ABSTRACT
This chapter describes to work out the economic implications of the Welfare State. This leads on to a discussion of the main social, economic and political factors lying behind the rising trend of expenditure and of whether there are any counteracting factors. The very existence of the Welfare State is evidence that in Britain, in the second half of the twentieth century, such a redistribution is accepted as desirable in principle. Thus the Welfare State in Britain is criticized, as the authors have seen, because poverty and inequality of opportunity still exist in the early 1970s to a much greater extent than was expected at the time of the post-war changes. Thus there may be a conflict between the criteria of equity and economic effects. In general one could conclude that on balance the Welfare State is perhaps more likely to have a disincentive than an incentive effect on work.
