Increasing Demands on the Welfare State? Trends in Behavior and Attitudes

We find that younger generations in Sweden demand more social insurance compared with the older generations, although program rules have been constant for decades. The trend is strong, almost one % point higher take up per cohort, and robust across demographic groups. These trends in behavior are mirrored in attitudes toward benefit uptake in a broad set of countries, including Sweden. Younger generations have a more relaxed attitude toward claiming public benefits. Our findings indicate that younger generations demand more from the welfare state, and our behavioral data from Sweden quantify the speed at which demand is increasing. (JEL codes: H31, I18, J22, Z13). Copyright The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.