Inventory on core social policy databases and indicators for comparative research

Abstract

This InGRID deliverable is part of Work Package 22 on 'Innovative solutions for comparative policy indicators and analysis'. The purpose is to provide an inventory of core social policy databases and indicators for comparative research. We map 26 databases and infrastructures that fruitfully can be used in comparative research to analyse the causes and consequences of social policy. Each database is compared according to a set of characteristics, including type of data (expenditures, institutional indicators, beneficiary statistics, socio-economic/income surveys, microsimulation), policy areas included (cash benefits: family benefits, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, pensions, workaccidents, social assistance, and disability/invalidity/survivors benefits; public services: child care, health care, elder care, and active labour market policy), countries and years covered, as well as interval for updating of data. Nearly all databases specialise on distinct parts of social policy, and data on cash benefits are somewhat more frequent than data on public services, particularly when institutional indicators are in focus. Compared with data on social expenditures and beneficiaries, institutional indicators are based on social policy legislation and thus independent of changes in social needs and population characteristics.