Triggered by the phenomenon of globalisation, during recent years there has been a process of State policy rationalisation in the social expenditure domain; hence the debate over the present role and dimension of welfare state has intensified. Following on the extensive multidisciplinary literature on this issue, the purpose of this paper is two-fold 1) to apply a traditional analysis of convergence (sigma and beta convergence) in public social expenditures and 2) to analyse public social expenditure allocation expressed as a % of GDP and derive a possible classification of the countries by means of a multivariate approach. Our results, revealing that some convergence in the expenditure domain occurred for certain Southern and Northern European countries, can be interpreted as a further contribution to the literature on contemporary public policy evaluation in the welfare domain.

Elina De Simone Et Al (2012). Exploring Public Social Expenditure Trends in the Globalization Era, European Research Studies Journal Volume XV Issue 1, 23-42