Substantial cross-national differences in poverty alleviation are well documented, but theextent to which different parts of the social transfer system account for this variation is still relatively unexamined. This study analyses the redistributive effects of specific social policy institutions...

This paper addresses the question of the institutional flexibility of three major European welfare states. Using Data from the second and fifth wave of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), we measure first how effectively the German, British and Italian welfare state have responded changes in...

For a growing number of children in families headed by single mothers and in those headed by two adults with limited job skills, economic security now depends on mothers' earnings. The role that income transfers plays in reducing child poverty is well understood. Much less investigated is the...

In recent years, the discussion about welfare state reform has often focused on the effectiveness of social security schemes. This debate is torn between calls for more effective poverty alleviation on the one hand and concerns about welfare dependency and the need for stronger targeting of...

Children do not control their socio-economic situation; they benefit or suffer from their parents' situation. In north European countries major social transfer schemes, depending on the presence of dependent children, answer to multiple objectives (birth rate support, reduced inequality in the...

Although highly-developed welfare states in the industrialized world spend a large share of their income on social security, poverty and social exclusion have not been eradicated. The persistence of income poverty in industrialized welfare states casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of...