Returns to Schooling in 150 Countries
Source: Distributional Growth Accounting: Education and the Reduction of Global Poverty, 1980-2022.
This dataset reports comparable estimates of the returns to schooling in 150 countries around 2019. Returns to a year of schooling are estimated by running Mincerian regressions on harmonized labor force surveys. The database covers returns to a year of schooling in each country, decomposed by education level and by gender, together with 95% confidence intervals. See the paper, appendix G for more details.
General Government Revenue and Expenditure by Function in 177 Countries, 1980-2022
Source: Revisiting Global Poverty Reduction: Public Goods and the World Distribution of Income, 1980-2022.
Methodological Note: A New Database of General Government Revenue and Expenditure by Function, 1980-2022.
This dataset contains harmonized series of general government revenue and expenditure by function. These estimates were constructed by assembling and linking series from eighteen international and national sources, with particular attention given to public expenditure on education, healthcare, and social protection. The unit of observation is the country-year. All aggregates are expressed in current local currency unit. GDP, national income deflators, and total populations are also provided, together with the raw data used to construct the final series. The source variables provide information on the sources and methods used to estimate the main series, as outlined in the technical note. Do not hesitate to contact me for questions or suggestions on how to improve the database.
Government Redistribution and Posttax Income Inequality in 174 Countries, 1980-2019
This dataset provides comparable estimates of government redistribution and posttax income inequality in 174 countries since 1980. It was constructed by combining pretax income inequality series from the World Inequality Database with additional data from household surveys, national accounts, government budgets, tax simulators, and existing fiscal incidence studies. The unit of observation is the country-year-generalized percentile. G-percentiles range from 0 (p0p1, or bottom 1%) to 99999 (p99.999p100, or top 0.001%). All distributional variables correspond to bracket averages for the corresponding g-percentiles. For instance, a_pre for g-percentile 99200 corresponds to the average pretax national income of income group p99.2p99.3. All variables are expressed in current local currency unit; they can be converted to constant 2022 PPP USD using the deflator and PPP conversion factor provided in the file. The file also provides posttax income distributions previously estimated in other Distributional National Accounts studies (variables indexed by dina_). Three synthetic indicators of inequality, the bottom 50% share, the top 10% share, and the top 1% share are also provided, allowing for straightforward analyses of levels and trends in inequality and redistribution across countries.
Individual Microdata on Voting Behavior in 51 Countries, 1948-2022
Source: Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities. A Study of Fifty Democracies, 1948–2020.
Methodological Note: Building the World Political Cleavages and Inequality Database.
This dataset reports harmonized individual microdata on voting behavior in 51 countries from 1948 to 2022. It was constructed by compiling post-electoral and political attitudes surveys available in each country. The unit of observation is the country-year-individual. The main variables cover voting behavior, turnout, and the sociodemographic characteristics of voters in each election. More information can be found on wpid.world and in the methodological note. Complete computer codes and other complementary data files can be found here. The database was originally compiled in 2021. It has been updated in 2024 and will continue to be regularly updated as new post-electoral surveys become available.