Our objective in this paper is to assess how middle-income groups are faring with the global turn to the market. We suggest some simple measures of the middle-the size and income shares of households around the median (75/125%)-and their income status relative to wealthier counterparts. Our...

In combating poverty, whether or not to design a universal program or a targeted program has been a perpetual dilemma. The objective of this paper is to conduct an international comparison of the 'universality' and 'targeting' of social security systems. The paper presents an outline of...

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 chapter addresses the important issue of the quality of time series data on income distribution. We hope to suggest both standards and practice patterns that will improve the production and use of time series data on inequality. Thus, we address three groups: primary data producers;...

The five-parameter generalized beta distribution and ten of its special cases are considered as models fore the size distribution of income. The models are fit to income data for 23 countries and various years - a total of 82 datasets. Of the models considered, the Weibull, Daagum and...

Changes in the headcount rate are the standard metric for gauging how public transfers and taxes affect poverty. An alternative strategy, one theoretically more appealing and complete, is to rely on distribution-sensitive indexes [Sen (1976, 1981)]. How would policies measured impacts change if...

One of the most dramatic social transformations of the latter half of the twentieth century involved the massive influx of women into the paid labor force. A central debate in studies of women's labor force participation concerns the influence of demographic and economic structures and...

Human resources are an essential element of a health system's inputs, and yet there is little consistency between countries in how human resource policies and strategies are developed and implemented. The analysis of the impacts of services on population health and well-being attracts more...