Constructing typologies or categories of welfare states characterized social policy research during the last decade. Esping-Andersen's Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990) launched an avalanche of typologies. Interest in cross-national comparisons has been facilitated by several attempts to...

This paper argues that skill formation is a life-cycle process and develops the implications of this insight for Scottish social policy. Families are major producers of skills, and a successful policy needs to promote effective families and to supplement failing ones. Targeted early...

This paper argues that skill formation is a life-cycle process and develops the implications of this insight for Scottish social policy. Families are major producers of skills, and a successful policy needs to promote effective families and to supplement failing ones. We present evidence that...