Abstract
This article assesses how well welfare models with different financing mechanisms cope with a major financial crisis. It focuses on five EU countries, which represent different welfare models. It also analyses how the crisis and the associated stimulus or austerity measures changed financing, revealing a regressive impact. It demonstrates that, in the short or medium term, contribution-based social systems have more stable public finances during a recession than tax-based systems. That said, the corporatist/ continental welfare model seems most likely to remain stable in the long run, in so far as it focuses on keeping employment – the system’s main source of revenue – stable.