The expansion of unemployment insurance in the Global South, 1980-2019

This dissertation is the result of a data collection effort that maps the development of unemployment insurance (UI) in the Global South between 1980 and 2019. Based on a novel dataset compiled for this study, it documents reforms, coverage rates, and benefit generosity across 40 late-adopting countries. The analysis identifies a clear trend of UI expansion over the observed period. To explain this development, I examine the determinants of UI expansion along three dimensions: policy enactment, practical implementation, and benefit design. Across all analyses, democratization consistently emerges as the main driver of expansion. Furthermore, economic conditions and government ideology impact UI development under certain conditions. By introducing new data and testing established theories in an understudied policy domain, the study advances research on welfare state development in the Global South beyond typical social policy schemes such as pension and health care. This dissertation contributes to the research by (1) providing novel data on UI generosity, (2) mapping and describing the development and expansion of UI in 40 Global South economies, (3) identifying determinants of UI expansion and (4) integrating UI into the general research on welfare state expansion in the Global South