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Contrary to the popular view that the U.S. welfare system has been in a contractionary phase after the expansions of the welfare state in the 1960s, welfare spending resumed steady growth after a pause in the 1970s. However, although aggregate spending is higher than ever, there have been redistributions away from non-elderly and nondisabled families to families with older adults and to families with recipients of disability programs; from non-elderly, nondisabled single-parent families to married-parent families; and from the poorest families to those with higher incomes. These redistributions likely reflect longstanding, and perhaps increasing, conceptualizations by U.S. society of which poor are deserving and which are not.

This review, commissioned by the Research Councils UK Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) programme, concerns research on the impacts on health and social care systems in the United Kingdom of extreme weather events, under conditions of climate change. Extreme weather events considered include heatwaves, coldwaves and flooding. Using a structured review method, we consider evidence regarding the currently observed and anticipated future impacts of extreme weather on health and social care systems and the potential of preparedness and adaptation measures that may enhance resilience. We highlight a number of general conclusions which are likely to be of international relevance, although the review focussed on the situation in the UK. Extreme weather events impact the operation of health services through the effects on built, social and institutional infrastructures which support health and health care, and also because of changes in service demand as extreme weather impacts on human health. Strategic planning for extreme weather and impacts on the care system should be sensitive to within country variations. Adaptation will require changes to built infrastructure systems (including transport and utilities as well as individual care facilities) and also to institutional and social infrastructure supporting the health care system. Care sector organisations, communities and individuals need to adapt their practices to improve resilience of health and health care to extreme weather. Preparedness and emergency response strategies call for action extending beyond the emergency response services, to include health and social care providers more generally.

In Europe, differences among countries in the overall change in happiness since the early 1980s have been due chiefly to the generosity of welfare state programs—increasing happiness going with increasing generosity and declining happiness with declining generosity. This is the principal conclusion from a time-series study of 10 Northern, Western, and Southern European countries with the requisite data. In the present study, cross-section analysis of recent data gives a misleading impression that economic growth, social capital, and/or quality of the environment are driving happiness trends, but in the longterm, time-series data, these variables have no relation to happiness.

Background Reducing income inequality is one possible approach to boost subjective well-being (SWB). Nevertheless, previous studies have reported positive, null and negative associations between income inequality and SWB. Objectives This study reports the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between income inequality and SWB, and seeks to understand the heterogeneity in the literature. Methods This systematic review was conducted according to guidance (PRISMA and Cochrane Handbook) and searches (between January 1980 and October 2017) were carried out using Web of Science, Medline, Embase and PsycINFO databases. Results Thirty-nine studies were included in the review, but poor data reporting meant that only 24 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The narrative analysis of 39 studies found negative, positive and null associations between income inequality and SWB. The meta-analysis confirmed these findings. The overall association between income inequality and SWB was almost zero and not statistically significant (pooled r=-0.01, 95% CI-0.08 to 0.06; Q=563.10, I²=95.74%, p<0.001), suggesting no association between income inequality and SWB. Subgroup analyses showed that the association between income inequality and SWB was moderated by the country economic development (i.e. developed countries: r=-0.06, 95% CI-0.10 to -0.02 versus developing countries: r=0.16, 95% CI 0.09-0.23). The association between income inequality and SWB was not influenced by: (a) the measure used to assess SWB, (b) geographic region, or (c) the way in which income inequality was operationalised. Conclusions The association between income inequality and SWB is weak, complex and moderated by the country economic development.

We examine the influence of individual characteristics and targeted and universal social policy on single-mother poverty with a multilevel analysis across 18 affluent Western democracies. Although single mothers are disproportionately poor in all countries, there is even more cross-national variation in single-mother poverty than in poverty among the overall population. By far, the United States has the highest rate of poverty among single mothers among affluent democracies. The analyses show that single-mother poverty is a function of the household's employment, education, and age composition, and the presence of other adults in the household. Beyond individual characteristics, social policy exerts substantial influence on single-mother poverty. We find that two measures of universal social policy significantly reduce single-mother poverty. However, one measure of targeted social policy does not have significant effects, and another measure is significantly negative only when controlling for universal social policy. Moreover, the effects of universal social policy are larger. Additional analyses show that universal social policy does not have counterproductive consequences in terms of family structure or employment, while the results are less clear for targeted social policy. Although debates often focus on altering the behavior or characteristics of single mothers, welfare universalism could be an even more effective anti-poverty strategy.

Starting in 2014, many low-income adult residents of states that forgo the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid would be eligible for that program if they moved to a state that had chosen to expand its coverage. Some of these people may migrate to receive coverage, thereby increasing costs for states that have expanded the program. This is known as the \"welfare magnet\" hypothesis, a claim that geographic variation in social programs induces the migration of welfare recipients to places with more generous benefits or eligibility. To investigate whether such spillover effects are likely, we used data from the Current Population Survey to examine the migration patterns of low-income people before and after recent expansions of public insurance in Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. Using difference-in-differences analysis of migration in expansion and control states, we found no evidence of significant migration effects. Our preferred estimate was precise enough to rule out net migration effects of larger than 1,600 people per year in an expansion state. These results suggest that migration will not be a common way for people to obtain Medicaid coverage under the current expansion and that interstate migration is not likely to be a significant source of costs for states choosing to expand their programs. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Martin McKee and David Stuckler watch aghast as American examples are followed to destroy the European model of the welfare state

Arthur Turrell tells Nature how Bank of England researchers are fusing economics and epidemiology to study the complex effects of the pandemic. Arthur Turrell tells Nature how Bank of England researchers are fusing economics and epidemiology to study the complex effects of the pandemic.