Welfare Regimes and the Experience of Unemployment in Europe

Over the last twenty years, most countries have experienced periods of high unemployment. While in all countries, this had led to increased poverty and personal distress, the severity of the effects of unemployment have been very different from one society to another. This book provides for the first time clear evidence about the way in which the nature of the welfare arrangements in a country, together with its family and friendship patterns, can affect the risk that unemployment leads to social exclusion.