The welfare state and social entrepreneurship:insights from a multi-level study of European regions

Abstract

We develop new insights into social entrepreneurship about the role of the welfare state and citizen’s feelings of solidarity taking a regional perspective. Past research proposed opposing roles of the welfare state for social entrepreneurship in the institutional support and void perspectives, consistent with “crowding in” and “crowding out” views of solidarity. We conduct multi-level analysis in which individuals are nested in regions and countries based on merged data from the 2009 EU Flash Eurobarometer on Entrepreneurship, the European Social Survey and Eurostat. We find support for a long-term ‘crowding in’ and a short-term demand effect of the welfare state.