Discrepancy of social insurance between laws and practices: Implementation challenges of maternity leave in 73 low- and middle-income countries

Son, Keonhi

PDF
son-2025-discrepancy-of-social-insurance-between-laws-and-practices-implementation-challenges-of-maternity-leave-in-73.pdf - Published
Download (391kB)

DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181251324061
URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/146801812...
URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-694853
Document Type:	Article
Year of publication:	2025
The title of a journal, publication series:	Global Social Policy
Volume:	25
Issue number:	2
Page range:	254-272
Place of publication:	Los Angeles, Calif. [u.a.]
Publishing house:	Sage
ISSN:	1468-0181
Publication language:	English
Institution:	Außerfakultäre Einrichtungen > Mannheim Centre for European Social Research - Research Department A
Pre-existing license:	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Subject:	330 Economics 360 Social problems and services
Keywords (English):	Global South , implementation failure , maternity leave , social insurance
Abstract:	Although comparative welfare research has long criticized that the social insurance system in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) fails to cover the under-privileged population, very little is known about the discrepancy between social insurance legislation and its practice. In LMICs, social insurance legislation has remained only on the books for a long time, which prevents citizens from accessing their ‘entitled’ benefits. By analyzing the gap between the de jure and de facto coverage of maternity leave in 73 LMICs, this article provides the first systematic overview of the discrepancy between social insurance law and practice in different world regions. The empirical findings show that nearly a third of LMICs provide de jure universal coverage but only very few adhere to the promise. Low state capacity, prevalent corruption, and poor policy design impede the effective implementation of social insurance legislation.