A comparative study concerning the circumstances of women in four European countries, utilizing both theoretical literature concerned with welfare states, and empirical literature based on LIS data. Both cross country and gender comparisons are analyzed.

This paper surveys a dozen international comparative studies of poverty, income distribution and older people in industrialized countries using data up to the mid-1990s. It addresses a series of questions. At what level are the incomes of the elderly relative to the population as a whole? How...