After having stayed virtually unchanged from 1983 until 1990, the share of social security benefits in national income started to rise again in the beginning of the 90s. The sluggish growth of the early 90s and the 1993 recession are the main reasons for this recent increase. In fact, since the mid-70s, there has been an increase in the share of social security benefits during every economic downturn. Over the past ten years, there has been a sharp slowdown in the increase of social benefits. This change is notably due to restrictions of benefit entitlement conditions and the stability of most benefits in real terms.
