Recent government pronouncements in the UK and above all the recent Conservative Party (2008) policy document on welfare reform suggest that US welfare reform is increasingly being taken as a model for the UK. What lessons should the UK draw from US experience? The long established means tested...

This paper first considers what recurrent education is and what economic case might be made out for the State finance of adult education. The traditional arguments on grounds of efficiency and equity are difficult to sustain but a case can be made out that the imperfections in the present State...

We demonstrate that the introduction of social protection systems as well as their generosity and coverage have significant impacts on health. Who receives the benefits within the household affects the health outcomes for the family. The eligibility for and administration of benefits matters. We...

This paper discusses the contribution made by American social scientists to the study of poverty in the past twenty five years. It has three parts. The first concentrates on the measurement of poverty and the fact that the US poverty line remained unchanged in that period despite its...

Regular annual studies made by the Office of National Statistics in the UK are intended to show how far taxing household incomes and giving benefits in cash and kind to households redistributes income from rich to poor. The first attempt to do this in the UK was made by Tibor Barna for the year...