Are immigrants on welfare because they are more likely to be eligible or because they are more likely to claim benefits for which they are eligible? The answer is politically important, but because most current research on immigration and welfare is based on data from the United States, the answer is difficult due to the complexities of the transfer system which make eligibility determinations difficult. ...
This project employs the theory of equality of opportunity, described in Roemer's book (Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press, 1998), to compute the extent to which tax-and-transfer regimes in ten countries equalize opportunities among citizens for income acquisition. Roughly speaking, equality of opportunity for incomes has been achieved in a country when it is the case that the distributions ...
Most UK surveys, including those used each year to derive the official UK income distribution statistics ('Households Below Average Income'), provide measures of current household income rather than annual household income, which is the measure used in most other countries. Using British Household Panel Survey data, we examine whether estimates of Britain's income distribution and its trends are sensitive ...