Bio: (1907-1973) British social researcher. Richard Titmus did not have a formal college education and at the beginning of his career worked in an insurance company, then for the British government, and later became a professor at the London School of Economics. His first book, Poverty and Population (1936), examined the regional differences in poverty between the north and south of Britain. In addition, in this book, Titmus deals with the relationship between the conditions in which the poor live (diet, housing, other environmental factors) and diseases that can be prevented by adequate living conditions and treatment.

In his next book, Birth, Poverty and Wealth (1942), the author continued to study the problems caused by poverty, and this time he focused on the relationship between poverty and infant mortality. These two books, as well as numerous articles, made Titmus one of the founders of the interdisciplinary field of social medicine. His research on social policy, which was conducted in Britain during World War II, when a large part of the population had to move out of their homes due to the German bombing of cities, resulted in the book Problems of Social Policy (1950). The results of that research proved that many existential problems of the population can be solved when the state implements adequate redistribution of resources. Titmus and Brian Abel-Smith jointly conducted a study of the cost of public health insurance in the UK (National Health Service, NHS), and in the book, The Cost of the National Health Insurance (1956) published the results of this research, which showed that the amount of budget expenditures of the state for health, since the introduction of this form of insurance, has remained the same.

In his book Essays on the Welfare State (1958), Titmus collected ten essays he wrote between 1951 and 1958. In this book, he re-examines the limited view of social policy that was then accepted. He believes that it is necessary to expand such a limited definition of social policy, because only a broader view of social policy can make it possible to determine which needs, in which way, and which part of the population, social policy should meet. To distinguish between two views of social policy, Titmus introduces two ideal types of welfare states - "residual" and "institutional". The concept of a residual welfare state assumes that the state should only get involved when both the family and the market fail. The Institutional type of welfare state implies wider action of the state, when it takes over all allocative and distributive decisions. This typology of welfare states was the basis for further comparative research on the social policies of different states. In his book Social Policy (1974), Titmus extends this typology to the following types of the welfare state: the "institutional redistributive model", the "industrial achievement-performance model" and the "residual model". In each of these three ideal types of social policy, the state, the family, and the market stand in different relationships and take on different roles.

In the book Income Distribution and Social Change (1962), Titmus showed that there is a much greater difference in income and wealth between classes than official statistics in Britain show. In The Gift Relationship (1970), Titmus explored the difference between the way blood is donated in Britain and the United States. He showed that the system that exists in Britain, where blood donation is voluntary, is better than the system in the United States, where blood donation is paid and functions according to the market system.

Main works

Poverty and Population (1936);

Parents Revolt (1942);

Birth, Poverty and Wealth (1943);  

Problems of Social Policy (1950);

The Cost of the National Health Insurance (1956);

Essays on The Welfare State (1958);

Income Distribution and Social Change (1962);

Commitment to Welfare (1968);

The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy (1970);

Social Policy: An Introduction (1974).