The Comparative Policy Laboratory (COMPLAB) is a research infrastructure run in collaboration between Stockholm University and Uppsala University, that provides vital policy data across three different policy strands: environmental-, social-, and migration policy.
Building on T.H. Marshall’s ideas about social citizenship, SPIN makes available comparative data on social rights and duties of citizens, thereby moving research beyond analyses of welfare state expenditures. The SPIN database is instead oriented towards analyses of institutions as manifested in social policy legislation. Data are carefully collected in a coherent and consistent methodological manner to facilitate quantitative research of social policy across time and space. To date, SPIN covers 36 countries, of which several have data on core social policy programs from 1930 to 2019.
The GRACE project addresses two central questions in the study on environmental governance: 1) Which factors explain cross-national differences in environmental policy outputs, and 2) Are environmental policy outputs linked to reductions of environmental harm? By compiling a data set of longitudinal and comparative environmental policy outputs in 38 countries for the period 1970-2010, this project will be able to address fundamental questions about society’s ability to respond to environmental problems, as well as provide evidence-based policy advice on the relative strengths and weaknesses of different policy instruments.
The Migration Policy Database (MIGPOL) is a comprehensive open-access data infrastructure for scholars and students who are interested in the ways public policies intersect with the movement of individuals across international borders. It brings together the most advanced and academically rigorous projects in this area of research and makes their data available and easily accessible. MIGPOL’s core ambition is, in other words, to “assemble – rather than reinvent – the wheel” (Helbling & Solano 2021) of comparative migration policy research.
Demscore currently includes data from COMPLAB SPIN, GRACE, and MIGPOL.
SPIN, the Social Policy Indicators Database, include seven datasets covering different aspects of social policy available, two data additional datasets are in progress.
GRACE, Governing the Anthropocene – Environmental Policy and Outcomes in a Comparative Perspective, is a longitudinal and comparative study on environmental governance has created a dataset of national policy responses for environmental management and protection in 37 countries for the period 1970-2022.
MIGPOL, The Migration Policy Database consists of a range of indicators compiled on behalf of leading data projects in the field of comparative migration policy research. It also contains original data on the rights of irregular migrants which will soon be added to Demscore.
COMPLAB SPIN, takes the step forward to move from descriptive to causal analyses of social change that has long been deemed necessary in the social sciences. Due to the difficulties of conducting experimental studies, social scientists use comparisons between countries and over time as fruitful strategies to analyze central processes in modern societies. Comparative research was long constrained by a lack of relevant and reliable data, particularly in the field of social policy where expenditure data were often used.
The SPIN database now offers data for a number of different research purposes, that include but are not limited to:
SPIN takes on an explicit life cycle perspective, facilitating analyses of inter-generational relations. Do countries satisfy the demand for social protection of all generations or are the needs of the young, middle-aged and the elderly in opposition and differently favored by the welfare state?
SPIN includes detailed quantitative information about the structure of several different types of cash benefit programs, facilitating more detailed assessments of the causes and consequences of various institutional designs in policymaking.
SPIN is not only oriented towards cash benefit programs, but also addresses the interplay between cash and care. We are in the process of establishing new comparative data on child care arrangements, including financing, coverage and quality of services.
SPIN involves efforts to measure the “hidden” welfare state of fiscal policy, including the extent to which countries have introduced various forms of tax allowances and credits, not least for families with children.
SPIN is designed to address how welfare states affect class and gender relations, for example by our focus on family policy, parental leave benefits and degree of income protection across earnings-levels.
SPIN is broadened beyond longstanding OECD-member countries and collects comparative social policy data for all EU countries, North America and parts of Oceania, Asia and Latin America.
Above is an overview of the data sources provided by COMPLAB and how they are prepared and included in Demscore.
The figure below is an overview of which variables can be retrieved in which other Output Units within this Module. The labelled arrows further indicate which translation methods we use and in what way observations are translated to each other.
You can find a detailed explanation of all Units and more information on their programmatic construction on the Documentation page and in the Demscore Methodology Document.
