This paper attempts to bridge the gap between previous cross-national work estimating rates of return to education and the current trend toward examining rates over time. Changes in the returns to education in the 1980s over five countries were driven by different forces across the countries.

This paper explores the income distribution position of immigrants and nonimmigrants using three different approaches. The results indicate that there is virtually no difference between the distributional profiles of immigrant and nonimmigrant families in Australia. However, when a similar...

This study addresses the effect of marital status on economic well-being by comparing the economic situation of never- and ever-married single mother families in the United States, Australia, Canada, and France. The paper presents cross-national, descriptive and analytic data on poverty levels,...

This paper compares the most commonly quoted female-to-male wage ratios (based on hourly earnings in manufacturing) and ratios based on a harmonized analysis of household surveys. The surveys include employees of all types in all sectors - thereby overcoming the problems associated with a lack...

This paper investigates the relationship between educational attainment and earnings inequality in eight nations using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) database. Although the results should be considered exploratory rather than definitive until verified and qualified by more detailed...

This paper was originally presented a the Fourth International Research Seminar of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (FISS) in June 1997 in Sigtuna, Sweden. In the United States, several public policy initiatives have been undertaken to encourage more work and later...

This paper uses microdata from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) to estimate and compare four dimensions of the well-being of the aged in Taiwan and eight other countries - the United States, Japan, Australia, Poland, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Canada. Together, these nine countries cover a...

In this paper I will study in a comparative perspective how taxes, social transfers and tax expenditures effect the social policy goal of redistributing income. The following countries are included in the analysis: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and United...

This paper examines the relationship between the distribution of average annual household pre-tax earnings and average annual household hours of market work for married couple households. The point of departure in this paper is the treatment of the variation in annual hours worked either over...

In this paper we use microdata on employment and earnings from a variety of industrialized countries to investigate the family gap in pay - the differential in hourly wages between women with children and women without children. We present results from seven countries: Australia, Canada, the...