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Welfare State Expenditures and the Redistribution of Well-Being: Children, Elders, and Others in Comparative Perspective

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  • Timothy Smeeding
  • Irwin Garfinkel
  • Lee Rainwater

Abstract

This paper describes the size, nature, and redistributive effects of welfare state expenditures in ten advanced industrialized nations and relates these differences across nations to disparities in the economic well-being of country populations as a whole and three (mutually exclusive and exhaustive) sub-groups: children (and their families); elders; and childless adult households. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are used to describe differences in the size and nature of welfare states. The OECD health, welfare and education benefits data are combined with micro data on household incomes from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) to assess their distribution and finance across the income distribution in ten countries. The results indicate a wide range of differences in levels of economic resources and support, within as well as between, nations and groups. Counting in kind benefits at government cost substantially reduces cross national differences in market and cash disposable incomes, but does not eliminate them. But the results are very sensitive to how inkind benefits, especially health insurance, are measured and valued and call into question the extra-ordinarily high US expenditures on health care.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Smeeding & Irwin Garfinkel & Lee Rainwater, 2005. "Welfare State Expenditures and the Redistribution of Well-Being: Children, Elders, and Others in Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 387, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:387
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    Cited by:

    1. Luca Giangregorio, 2024. "Welfare type and income inequality: an income source decomposition including in-kind benefits and cash-transfers entitlement," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(2), pages 367-403, April.
    2. Tess Penne & Irene Cussó Parcerisas & Lauri Mäkinen & Bérénice Storms & Tim Goedemé, 2016. "Can reference budgets be used as a poverty line?," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/05, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Daniela Sonedda & Gilberto Turati, 2005. "Winners and Losers in the Italian Welfare State: A Microsimulation Analysis of Income Redistribution Considering In-Kind Transfers," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 64(4), pages 423-464, December.
    4. Timothy Smeeding & Teresa Munzi, 2017. "Conditions of Social Vulnerability, Work and Low Income, Evidence for Spain in Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 448, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Timothy Smeeding & Teresa Munzi, 2005. "Poverty and Inequality: Greece and Mediterranean Europe in Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 421, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Heisz, Andrew, 2007. "Inegalite et redistribution du revenu au Canada : 1976 a 2004," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2007298f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    7. M Amin, 2020. "Effect of Fiscal Decentralization Financial Performance Against Local And Regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) NTB," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 7(4), pages 169-174, July.
    8. Thomas DiPrete & Ellen Verbakel, 2007. "The Value of Non-Working Time Incorporated in Quality of Life Comparisons: The Case of the U.S. vs. the Netherlands," LIS Working papers 464, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Charlotte Cavaillé, 2015. "Deservingness, Self-Interest and the Welfare State: Why Some Care More about Deservingness than Others and Why It Matters," LIS Working papers 652, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    10. Heisz, Andrew, 2007. "Income Inequality and Redistribution in Canada: 1976 to 2004," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2007298e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    11. Ursula Dallinger, 2011. "The Endangered Middle Class? A Comparative Analysis of the Role Public Redistribution Plays," LIS Working papers 565, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

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