Social consequences of unemployment: an East-West comparison

The paper compares the experience of unemployment in Britain with that in t hree former state socialist societies - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Sl ovakia, countries with relatively recent welfare systems, providing a low l evel of coverage for the unemployed. The analysis examines the implications of the different types of welfare regime for financial stress, for social isolation and for psychological well-being. While it finds that the implica tions of welfare arrangments depend considerably on the nature of the labou r market, it concludes that the combination of very high unemployment with low welfare coverage - exemplified by the case of Bulgaria - has exceptiona lly high social and personal costs. There is no evidence that these are off set by the emergence of alternative welfare arrangements based on community solidarities.