Tracing the Trajectory of Social Expenditure Research Using Bibliometric Analysis: Responses to Global Crises

Purpose and Background

This study examines how research on social expenditure evolves over time. It identifies keywords across different periods and analyzes collaboration patterns among scholars. Social expenditure reflects how governments prioritize social needs and allocate public resources. It serves as a key indicator in social welfare studies, yet its conceptual development remains largely overlooked. In particular, this study explores how social expenditure is framed in response to major social crises (e.g., the 2008 global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic). Using bibliometric analysis, it traces the development of research on social expenditure and offers insights for future research.

Methods

This study collects data from the Web of Science Core Collection and applies the PRISMA 2020 framework to systematically identify and screen relevant literature. The screening process uses both document type and keyword-based criteria, focusing on terms such as ‘social expenditure’ and ‘public social spending’. The final dataset is analyzed using R-Biblioshiny. Performance analysis examines publication trends, author impact metrics, and relationships among countries, keywords, and titles using a Three-Field Plot. Science mapping visualizes co-word patterns, thematic structures, and the evolution of research themes over time.

Results

1. Performance Analysis

This study analyzes 561 articles published in 304 journals. The annual publication rate increases by an average of 5.89%. Among the top 10 most productive authors, the average h-index and g-index are both 5.30, and the m-index is 0.68. The Three-Field Plot shows that keywords such as 'OECD', 'Welfare State', 'Social Policy', 'Economic Growth', 'Globalization', and 'Inequality' are widely distributed across the top 10 countries, indicating broad global engagement with the topic.

2. Science Mapping Analysis

Network analysis maps four dominant thematic clusters: (i) Expenditure (care and health), (ii) Welfare-State (policy and globalization), (iii) Growth (economic and unemployment), and (iv) Redistribution (income and poverty). Thematic analysis classifies research into four categories: (i) Motor Themes (welfare-state, globalization), (ii) Basic Themes – macro (expenditure, policy) and micro (care, health), (iii) Niche Themes (global burden, quality-of-life), (iv) Emerging or Declining Themes (economic growth, panel-data). Thematic evolution analysis divides the timeline into three periods to trace how the field responds to major global crises. During the pre-crisis period (1991–2008), research focuses on macro-level topics such as health and globalization. In the post-financial crisis period (2009–2019), it expands to include welfare state regimes and government expenditure, reflecting growing interest in institutional differences and policy outcomes. In the post-pandemic period (2020–2025), terms like OECD and efficiency gain prominence, indicating a shift toward empirical and comparative approaches. Over time, particularly in the aftermath of social crises, research shifts from micro-level analysis to broader comparative and efficiency-oriented perspectives.

Implications

This study shows that social expenditure research continues to evolve in response to social crises. These crises accelerate a shift from micro-level and institutional approaches to more comparative, empirical, and efficiency-focused frameworks. This shift reflects a growing recognition of social expenditure not merely as a fiscal measure, but as a lens through which changing approaches to welfare, policy design, and political priorities are understood.