The Political Economy of Household Services in Europe / Work and Welfare in Europe (PDF)

Clément Carbonnier, University of Cergy-Pontoise, France
Nathalie Morel, Sciences Po, France
Kristiina Aalto, University of Helsinki, Finland
Catharina Calleman, Stockholm University, Sweden
François-Xavier Devetter, University of Lille, France
Virginie Guiraudon, Sciences Po, France
Heikki Hiilamo, University of Helsinki, Finland
Florence Jany-Catrice, University of Lille, France
Clémence Ledoux, University of Nantes, France
Marion Lefebvre, University of Lille, France
Kai Leichsenring, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna
Ive Marx, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Anita Nyberg, Stockholm University, Sweden
Andrea Schmidt, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna
Karen Shire, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Dieter Vandelannoote, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, Belgium
Juliane Winkelmann, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna

"This is a wonderfully illuminating book presenting a new incisive analysis of the political economy of household services. It throws light on the increasing use of tax breaks in Continental and Nordic welfare states to support the private employment of household and care services. While the political legitimacy for this is that it helps the productivity of skilled professional workers in the knowledge economy and employment for those marginalised from the labor market, the reality is new social, gendered and ethnic inequalities and labour market dualisms. A major contribution to understanding the contradictions of neo-liberal welfare polices." - Fiona Williams, University of Leeds, UK

"Using public policy to create new incentive structures for the marketization of household services is one of the very important albeit under-analysed directions of change as welfare regimes are restructured. Nathalie Morel and Clément Carbonnier have assembled a truly impressive array of experts to describe and assess this redesign and thereby to make it fully visible to social policy analysis. The cross-disciplinary approach bringing together, among others, political scientists, economists and sociologists provides a rich array of lens with which to view reliance on tax credits to replace more familiar policy instruments in order to achieve market-making policy effects." - Jane Jenson, Université de Montréal, Canada

"This book puts into perspective some celebrated employment miracles, which, if on the one hand they allowed low skilled individuals to access jobs, at the same time reinforced old inequalities and generated new ones. With its multidisciplinary approach, this book sheds light on the increasing use of fiscal instruments in Continental and Nordic welfare states to foster low skilled employment, on the labour market outcomes of these policies, as well as on their social and welfare consequences. A recommended reading to all those who want to understand the