Codebook of the Historical Dataset on Child Benefits (HDCB)

As part of the Welfare State Information System (WeSIS), the Historical Dataset of Child Benefits (HDCB) provides data on cash transfers and tax allowance programs in support of families with children for 96 countries with a population of more than half a million inhabitants, covering the period between 1926 and 2019. The purpose of this data collection is to enhance the understanding of the global diffusion of child benefits from a historical perspective. The HDCB is a longitudinal dataset containing information on the institutional design of child benefits, from the first introduction of child benefits to the latest development, in all the countries for which it was possible to retrieve reliable data. This codebook provides HDCB users with information regarding the content of the dataset and the data collection process. All data included in version 1.0 of the HDCB refer to information contained in national legislative texts; thus, they describe countries’ institutional settings and not de facto situations.