The cost of coercion: An empirical study of the willingness to pay for disability insurance

European welfare states are facing hard times. Many consider them wasteful and unduly paternalistic. To indicate the elements ripe for change is relatively easy. But to reach political agreement on the appropriate changes, and to get sufficient social support for any proposal to curtail existing entitlements, proves difficult. The constituency of the welfare state includes not only current beneficiaries, but also older workers, persons with disabilities, and small-scale businesses owners. The incomes of these higher risk groups are protected by collective arrangements at prices that do neither reflect the full social cost of income transfers nor the extent to which they are subsidized by lower risk groups.

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