The Really Big Trade-Off: Home Ownership and the Welfare State in tne New World and the Old

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of private home ownership as an alternative means of accomplishing the horizontal, life cycle redistribution that is one of the primary functions of the welfare state. The analysis uses cross-national evidence to examine the proposition that there has been an inverse relationship between the level of home ownership and the degree of welfare state provision in the advanced nations during the post-war period. The paper also utilizes a comparative approach to demonstrate that widespread home ownership may reduce the need for generous income maintenance for the aged and may redress the overall extent of inequality amongst that population. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that extreme contrasts between the outcomes of European welfare state leaders and supposedly more laggardly New World countries may need to be somewhat modified.