Big Data and the Welfare State

Torben Iversen is Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. His most recent book (co-authored with David Soskice) is Democracy and Prosperity: Reinventing Capitalism through a Turbulent Century (2019). Philipp Rehm is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University. His research interests are located at the intersection of Political Economy and Political Behavior.

• 1. Introduction; 2. A theoretical framework; 3. A brief analytical history of social protection; 4. Private markets for life and health insurance; 5. Credit markets; 6. Labor market risks; 7. Conclusion.

'Big Data and the Welfare State is a big book. Iversen and Rehm take a familiar observation-that advances in science and technology are stripping away our 'veil of ignorance' about health and income risks-and turn it into a revelatory account of the changing structure and politics of national welfare states. Anyone concerned about inequality and social policy in the information age (and everyone should be) has to read this book.' Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University and author, The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream (2nd ed., 2019)