Overall, Denmark spends much more than the U. In particular, a much higher share of its poor young children is enrolled in daycare and preschool than the United States. This large public investment in kids seems to increase cognitive skills among poor Danish children compared to their American peers. In international math and reading scores, for example, the poorest quartile in Denmark far outperforms their counterparts in the U. But despite this far greater investment in young children and public colleges, Danish children of high-school graduates are still extremely unlikely to go onto college.
In the early s, when Denmark raised the minimum age of eligibility for social assistance, college enrollment among Danish twentysomethings fell below its trajectory. Based on this finding, the researchers conclude that welfare policies may reduce college enrollment. Denmark makes it more comfortable to be poor and less lucrative to be rich, so many young people decide to end their education after high school. This final idea may be the most controversial. But Republicans can say: Despite liberal arguments that Denmark is so much better than the U.
The most significant implication of this paper is not a happy one: Equality of opportunity is a fantasy. It does not exist in the U. Another essential factor of employment quality is job security, in terms of expected loss of earnings when someone becomes unemployed.
This includes how likely you are to lose your job, how long you are likely to remain unemployed and how much financial assistance you can expect from government. Workers facing a high risk of job loss are more vulnerable, especially in countries with smaller social safety nets.
In Denmark, workers face an expected 4. The Danish flexicurity model, which was largely developed through the s, is characterised by three core elements: flexible rules for hiring and dismissals, generous replacement rates of unemployment insurance benefits and substantial spending on active labour market policies. The main advantage of flexicurity is that it limits the financial risk to both employers and employees. The high degree of flexibility allows companies to make quick adjustments to their work force in the different phases of the business cycle, and in hiring inexperienced youth.
The flexicurity model performed well in the two decades leading up to the global crisis and early assessment of its performance during the downturn also points to robust outcomes. At the same time, there has been only a small increase in structural unemployment in the wake of the downturn. The Ethnic Coach for Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs project aims to overcome a lack of trust in the public support system by providing advice from professional coaches from the same ethnic group as the participant.
The role of the coach is to help the entrepreneur adjust to the regulatory and social norms of the new country, and to build and strengthen ethnic minority social and entrepreneurial networks. Coaches help clarify and strengthen business plans and needs, then refer the entrepreneur to training and other advisory services in the local area. Once the business is launched, coaches continue to support the entrepreneurs as they develop and grow their business.
In recent years, nearly ethnic minority entrepreneurs have been assisted annually. Humans are social creatures. The frequency of our contact with others and the quality of our personal relationships are thus crucial determinants of our well-being. A strong social network, or community, can provide emotional support during both good and bad times as well as provide access to jobs, services and other material opportunities.
A weak social network can result in limited economic opportunities, a lack of contact with others, and eventually, feelings of isolation.
Socially isolated individuals face difficulties integrating into society as a contributing member and fulfilling personal aspirations. A well-educated and well-trained population is essential for a country's social and economic well-being. Education plays a key role in providing individuals with the knowledge, skills and competences needed to participate effectively in society and in the economy. Having a good education greatly improves the likelihood of finding a job and earning enough money.
Danes can expect to go through Graduating from upper secondary education has become increasingly important in all countries, as the skills needed in the labour market are becoming more knowledge-based. High-school graduation rates therefore provide a good indication of whether a country is preparing its students to meet the minimum requirements of the job market. But graduation rates, while important, speak little to the quality of education received. The average student in Denmark scored in reading literacy, maths and sciences, above the OECD average of The best-performing school systems manage to provide high-quality education to all students.
Denmark introduced clear targets and principles in for the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream education. The Folkeskole reform compulsory education reform focused on objectives related to student achievement, equity and well-being along with corresponding indicators.
The progress made on these objectives is monitored by each school and reported back to municipalities. Central funding for municipalities also encourages the development of the teaching profession. The target is for every teacher to have the latest competencies and qualifications they need for the subjects they teach by The quality of our local living environment has a direct impact on our health and well-being. Outdoor air pollution is one important environmental issue that directly affects the quality of people's lives.
Despite national and international interventions and decreases in major pollutant emissions, the health impacts of urban air pollution continue to worsen , with air pollution set to become the top environmental cause of premature mortality globally by Air pollution in urban centres, often caused by transport and the use of small-scale burning of wood or coal, is linked to a range of health problems, from minor eye irritation to upper respiratory symptoms in the short-term and chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer in the long-term.
Children and the elderly may be particularly vulnerable. In Denmark, PM2. Access to clean water is fundamental to human well-being. Despite significant progress in OECD countries in reducing water pollution, improvements in freshwater quality are not always easy to discern. The City of Copenhagen has, as do many other Danish towns, a long tradition for cycling policies, investing in dedicated cycle lanes and bridges. Copenhagen City has km of dedicated cycling tracks and 48 bicycle parking spaces throughout the city.
Currently, more than 1. The most innovative policy initiative to facilitate this goal is to build "cycle super highways" for fast, long distance bike commuting, with few or no traffic lights. An 11 mile-long cycle superhighway between Copenhagen and Albertslund, a western suburb, is the first of 26 routes scheduled to be built, which are designed to encourage more people to commute to and from Copenhagen by bicycle. For the superhighway project, Copenhagen and 21 local governments teamed up to ensure that there were contiguous, standardised bike routes into the capital, across distances of up to 14 miles.
The cycle-friendly fame of Copenhagen has led to other city cycling initiative adopters such as New York naming their biking lanes "Copenhagen lanes". The cycling strategy also has significant economic gains for the city. Trust in government is essential for social cohesion and well-being. High voter turnout is a measure of citizens' participation in the political process. Broader public engagement in the decision-making process is also important for holding the government to account and maintaining confidence in public institutions.
The formal process for public engagement in developing laws and regulations is one way to measure the extent to which people can become involved in government decisions on key issues that affect their lives. In Denmark, the level of stakeholder engagement in developing regulations is 2. Senior Citizens' Councils SCC are voluntary nationwide organisations that exist in each of Denmark's 98 municipalities. Each Council is elected on a democratic basis, by local senior citizens over 60 years of age.
City government councils are obliged to consult the local SCC before a final decision is made on any issue relevant to the elderly population. The Association is completely neutral when it comes to political party matters and focuses primarily on supporting SCCs. MindLab is a cross-governmental innovation unit which involves citizens and businesses in co-creating new solutions for society. MindLab works with service users, citizens and other stakeholders at early planning stages of service delivery.
Denmark's central bank also stressed that while this wealth was the average, there was a significant difference between individuals. For instance, the central bank said that Danes with the largest incomes tended to have the more assets and liabilities, while people who were older tended have bigger pensions. The central bank's analysis showed Danes' wealth had grown even more in the first quarter of this year, to an average of 24, Danish krone per person.
Households in the Netherlands had the second-highest amount in financial assets, at 1.
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