A Brief Analysis of the Administration Costs of National Social Protection Systems in EU Member States

The complex issues associated with the term European Social Model was analyzed in terms of administration costs that European Union member states incur to assure the operation of social protection schemes. The study shows that there is a high heterogeneity both in terms of the amount (share of GDP) allocated by member states through social protection systems (or welfare systems) and in terms of administration costs of these systems. In the last part of the article was presented an econometric analysis based on panel data regression in which administration costs of social protection systems was used as an endogenous variable and employment, unemployment and real GDP growth rate as explanatory variables.