We assemble data from several different sources to examine the cross-national effects of inequality and trust on social expenditures. We find that the inequality between the middle classes and the poor (as measured by the 50/10 percentile ratio) has a small, positive impact in social spending;...

Across OECD countries there are large differences in the average level and trend of working hours and there is persuasive evidence that attitudes to paid employment, particularly for women, differ significantly. This paper therefore asks the question: 'How much of the difference between...

This paper proposes an alternative formulation for the Sen-Shorrocks index of poverty intensity for survey data with sampling weights, and decomposes the Sen-Shorrocks index into the poverty rate, the average poverty gap ratio among the poor, and the overall Gini index of poverty gap ratios....

This paper uses estimates of the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon measure of poverty intensity in Canadian provinces, and the 95% confidence interval surrounding such estimates, for 1984, 1989 and 1991-1996 to compare Canadian provinces over time and internationally. Coinciding with more general social...

This paper examines the level and distribution of equivalent after tax, after transfer money income in Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany and Sweden using micro-data from the Luxembourg Income Study from 1969/70 to 1994/95. It concentrates on inequality within and between birth cohorts. At any...

This paper begins by asking how poverty in affluent countries should be measured, before examining recent evidence on poverty intensity and its social significance. Section 1 advocates use of the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon index of poverty intensity and introduces the 'Poverty Box' as a summary...

This objective of this paper is to develop an index of economic well being for selected OECD countries for the period 1980 to 1996 and to compare trends in economic well being. We argue that the economic well being of a society depends on the level of average consumption flows, aggregate...

Canada was very late in establishing a comprehensive retirement security system - lagging roughly thirty five years after the US built its Social Security system and about eighty years after Bismark first established a state funded pension system in Germany. As a consequence, the reduction in...

Within the OECD, there are significant differences in the trend and level of average work hours. [For example, from 1980 to 2000, average working hours per adult (ages 15-64) rose by 234 hours in the USA to 1476 while falling by 170 hours in Germany, to 973]. Since these trends appear to be...

How much of the difference between countries in inequality of the distribution of income can be explained by work - i.e. by differing probabilities of any employment? Across OECD countries there are large differences in the average level and distribution of working hours. These differences arise...