This project studies diversity in size and character of welfare state provisions in 19 industrial democracies in the post World War II period. Investigators hope to identify social, economic, political, and demographic factors accounting for the diversity. Further, they will link the determinants and form of welfare state provisions to effects on the distribution of income and on living conditions in a subset of the countries. The research combines comparative historical analysis, quantitative cross- national analysis of aggregate data, and analysis of individual level data on income and living conditions. Its virtues include going beyond welfare expenditures and income inequality as variables of interest to create data usable for testing general scientific hypotheses about the functioning of welfare expen- ditures. Thus the project will permit measuring, rather than just assuming, what effects welfare planning and spending have. Results bear on sociological theories of state development and stratification, and have implications for income redistribution policies.
