El gasto en protección social en la UE meridionalun antes y después de la crisis de 2008

Resum

Social protection expenditure is the biggest item of the outlays assigned to the Welfare State and where largely lies most of the structural tendency to grow of this kind of outlays during this historic experience. The economies of Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal have been distinctly affected by the 2008 Great Recession, with some serious fiscal imbalances arising that have led to the adoption of consolidation policies which the Welfare State could not elude. This study aims is to analyse the impact of the adjustment policies on social protection expenditure in these countries during the years prior to the recession and those prior to the recovery. The aim is threefold. First is to determine to what extent the social cutbacks have effected the aforementioned expenditure items. Secondly, to gauge the impact that the abovementioned cutbacks have had onn the process ot internal convergencer and with regard to the EU-15, experienced by these countries in the decades prior to the crisis. And last, to examine whether the specificity of the European southern periphery has been reinforced as regards social expenditure.