The Southern European social model: Changes and continuities in recent decades

The present discussion paper focuses on the Southern European social model, a construct that captures important similarities across the four Mediterranean countries of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The author surveys developments in all four countries showing that, despite having made great strides towards catching up with Northern European welfare, education and training levels, there remain important challenges such as persistent labor market segmentation and reliance on the family for social protection.

Website: International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS) http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/

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