Determinants of Relative Poverty in Advanced Capitalist Democracies
利用14个发达资本主义民主国家1970-1997年的微观数据，分析了税前/转移支付贫困率及其通过税收和转移支付减少的程度，发现社会经济因素解释前者，而福利国家慷慨程度、宪法结构和左翼力量解释后者。
Using relative poverty measures based on micro-level data from the Luxembourg Income Study, in conjunction with pooled time-series data for 14 advanced capitalist democracies between 1970 and 1997, the authors analyze separately the rate of pretax/transfer poverty and the reduction in poverty achieved by systems of taxes and transfers. Socioeconomic factors, including de-industrialization and unemployment, largely explain pre-tax/transfer poverty rates of the working-age population in these advanced capitalist democracies. The extent of redistribution (measured as poverty reduction via taxes and transfers) is explained directly by welfare state generosity and constitutional structure (number of veto points) and the strength of the political left, both in unions and in government.