"In public debate and academic writings the American and European welfare states are often portrayed as inhabiting completely different welfare regimes. However, if we take a closer look at the historical development of the European welfare state we find that American philanthropic bodies such...

Whether observed differences in redistributive policies across countries are the result of differences in social preferences or efficiency constraints is an important question that paves the debate about the optimality of welfare regimes. To shed new light on this question, we estimate labor...