ABSTRACT
The distribution of income, or of economic well-being, between rich and poor, and the relative position of various groups in the income size distribution has been an important economic and policy issue for quite some time. This chapter illustrates the usefulness of a database such as Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) for cross-national comparisons of inequality and poverty. It provides the nuts and bolts of LIS: its basic structural elements and design. The chapter demonstrates the flexibility of LIS by setting the stage for comparisons of several measures of inequality, poverty and relative income position across the ten countries which comprise the LIS database. The middle-class and well-to-do income levels are designed to show where the population that is neither poor nor at risk of becoming poor is situated in the income spectrum. These categories are important to the budgetary realities of a modern welfare state because growing demands on public entitlements may require either increased taxes or benefit reductions.
