This paper reviews changing income distributions in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands, treating the three countries as leading economic performers in ' the three worlds of welfare capitalism.' Previous analyses have shown that earnings dispersion is increasing. The potential impact...

A crucial debate in policy-making as well as academic circles is whether there is a trade-off between economic efficiency and the size/generosity of the welfare state. One way to contribute to this debate is to compare the performance of "best cases" of different types of state. Arguably, in the...

In Sen's Capability Approach (CA) well-being can be defined as the freedom of choice to achieve the things in life which one has reason to value most for his or her personal life. Capabilities are in Sen's vocabulary therefore the real freedoms people have or the opportunities available to them....

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Dry statistics / real lives -- 1.2 Welfare states / welfare regimes -- 1.3 Our aims and methods: ethics, institutions and panels -- 1.4 Our focus: three countries, ten years -- 1.5 The...