The SPIN database: an update and expansion
The purpose of this project is to maintain, update and substantially expand the internationally renowned Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) Database (www.sofi.su.se/spin). The new improved SPIN database will continue to offer unique possibilities for state-of-the-art analyses on the causes and consequences of welfare states and social policy that are difficult to obtain elsewhere. The SPIN database includes a wide range of institutional indicators on the financing, eligibility criteria and quality of various types of social policy programs. The SPIN database has now reached the stage of development where new resources are required to continue pioneer welfare state analyses, improve dissemination of data and contribute to new breakthroughs in research. We have successfully finished a number of pilot projects on the conceptualization and measurement of social policy in areas where new data are urgently needed. In the continued development of the SPIN database, we will not only update existing data. Based on our pilot projects, we will construct new SPIN data models. We will also initiate new pilot projects to continue push further the frontiers of welfare state research, as well as improve the web interface and dissemination of SPIN. No Swedish government agency are responsible for collecting similar comparative data as in SPIN. SPIN does not include any ethically sensitive individual level data.
Final report
Purpose
The purpose of this infrastructure project was to maintain, update and expand the internationally renowned Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University. The SPIN database includes a wide range of indicators on the financing, eligibility criteria, and generosity of social policy. Data exist for a great number of policy programs, countries and years.
Results
During the duration of the project, we have worked on all four main tasks outlined in the proposal that was submitted to RJ: Updating of existing data, creating new data modules, initiating new pilot projects, and improving our website. Investments in new data modules are only done once there has been a successful data pilot.
• Updating existing data
All eleven data modules that are included in the SPIN-database are now updated with data for 2020 or beyond. In its current version, the database includes up to 39 countries for the years 1930-2024, 9004 variables, 4406 observations, and 3983024 data points.
• Creating new data modules
Three new SPIN data modules have been created.
Global SPIN (GLOBSPIN) includes a streamlined set of SPIN variables for a large number of countries in the Global South. Data for this SPIN module were collected in collaboration with researchers in the Department of Government at Uppsala University.
The Housing Benefits dataset (HBEN) includes detailed information about the generosity (level) of means- or income tested housing benefits on an annual basis from 2001 to 2020 in all OECD- and EU-countries.
The Crisis Packages dataset (CSP) includes data on the response measures that the EU countries put in place to tackle the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. Also this data were collected in collaboration with researchers in the Department of Government at Uppsala University.
• Initiating new data pilots
Three new data pilots were initiated.
Yearly social insurance data – this was our biggest investment in this infrastructure project, with the purpose of adding yearly measurements to our social insurance data. Previously, data were collected in five years intervals. It required us to invent a new digitized system for collecting data, where policy legislation as well as tax legislation is translated into digital code. With this code we have so far collected yearly social insurance data for all countries since the turn of the New Millennium, which are also published online. We are currently in the process of doing the same for earlier years.
Immigrants’ social rights – this pilot data was collected for a single cross-section and a few EU countries. We now have a working data collection template in place, and are in the process of scaling up this data collection once necessary funding is secured.
The Student Support and Fees dataset (SSFD) was a pilot project that now has become a fully fletched SPIN data module. SSFD includes detailed data on student support and student fees for full-time undergraduate students in 33 high-income countries since 2005.
• Introducing an improved web interface.
We have introduced a new website for the SPIN-database, which includes a more mature and modern graphical interface, as well as easier access to our data. Registration on the website is no longer necessary for downloading data.
Research
The SPIN database has increased its outreach. We register nearly 2000 downloads of SPIN data per year from the SPIN website (around 1600 unique downloads), more than 5000 page views, and more than 2000 unique visitors.
In addition, all SPIN data are available for download via the DEMSCORE (www.demscore.se) research infrastructure (see more below). Via the DEMSCORE data retrieval tool, 838 unique SPIN variables have been downloaded a total of 7111 times between 2023-2024. DEMSCORE makes it possible for users to customize their own datasets by downloading single or a combination of SPIN variables and combine this data with variables from other social sciences datasets.
The SPIN-database has generated 115 unique publications since 2019. Many of these publications are in peer reviewed academic journals, or as chapters in books with respectable publishing houses (see publications). There is probably a great number of unrecorded publications using SPIN-data as we do not have an effective monitor system in place. The numbers above are simply gathered from a sweep using Google Scholar.
Unforeseen problems
We did not consider it feasible within this project to make the childcare policy data module ready for publication. To finalize this module, we need access to national experts, which requires both additional financing and collaboration with international policy networks. We are in negotiations with the Parental Leave Network to set up a Child Care and Early Education Network. The main idea of this network would be to co-create the SPIN childcare policy data module and publish it online on our website. Financial constraints also forced us to postpone our data pilot on the generational structures of social rights and immigrant’s social rights. Both pilots are far from abandoned, and will start again once new funding is available.
Organisational integration
SPIN is now part of DEMSCORE, which is a major Swedish investment in social science research data infrastructures financed by the Swedish Research Council and the partner universities. SPIN is thus an integral part of the infrastructure work carried out at Stockholm university, and at its home base in the Swedish Institute for Social Research.
Open science
The SPIN-database is free to use and fully downloadable online.
International collaboration
We have collaborated closely with the EU InGRID advanced infrastructure project and the OECD. The former collaboration was especially important for our work on immigrant’s social rights, as well as childcare and early education. The latter collaboration was crucial for our work on the housing benefit module.
The purpose of this infrastructure project was to maintain, update and expand the internationally renowned Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University. The SPIN database includes a wide range of indicators on the financing, eligibility criteria, and generosity of social policy. Data exist for a great number of policy programs, countries and years.
Results
During the duration of the project, we have worked on all four main tasks outlined in the proposal that was submitted to RJ: Updating of existing data, creating new data modules, initiating new pilot projects, and improving our website. Investments in new data modules are only done once there has been a successful data pilot.
• Updating existing data
All eleven data modules that are included in the SPIN-database are now updated with data for 2020 or beyond. In its current version, the database includes up to 39 countries for the years 1930-2024, 9004 variables, 4406 observations, and 3983024 data points.
• Creating new data modules
Three new SPIN data modules have been created.
Global SPIN (GLOBSPIN) includes a streamlined set of SPIN variables for a large number of countries in the Global South. Data for this SPIN module were collected in collaboration with researchers in the Department of Government at Uppsala University.
The Housing Benefits dataset (HBEN) includes detailed information about the generosity (level) of means- or income tested housing benefits on an annual basis from 2001 to 2020 in all OECD- and EU-countries.
The Crisis Packages dataset (CSP) includes data on the response measures that the EU countries put in place to tackle the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. Also this data were collected in collaboration with researchers in the Department of Government at Uppsala University.
• Initiating new data pilots
Three new data pilots were initiated.
Yearly social insurance data – this was our biggest investment in this infrastructure project, with the purpose of adding yearly measurements to our social insurance data. Previously, data were collected in five years intervals. It required us to invent a new digitized system for collecting data, where policy legislation as well as tax legislation is translated into digital code. With this code we have so far collected yearly social insurance data for all countries since the turn of the New Millennium, which are also published online. We are currently in the process of doing the same for earlier years.
Immigrants’ social rights – this pilot data was collected for a single cross-section and a few EU countries. We now have a working data collection template in place, and are in the process of scaling up this data collection once necessary funding is secured.
The Student Support and Fees dataset (SSFD) was a pilot project that now has become a fully fletched SPIN data module. SSFD includes detailed data on student support and student fees for full-time undergraduate students in 33 high-income countries since 2005.
• Introducing an improved web interface.
We have introduced a new website for the SPIN-database, which includes a more mature and modern graphical interface, as well as easier access to our data. Registration on the website is no longer necessary for downloading data.
Research
The SPIN database has increased its outreach. We register nearly 2000 downloads of SPIN data per year from the SPIN website (around 1600 unique downloads), more than 5000 page views, and more than 2000 unique visitors.
In addition, all SPIN data are available for download via the DEMSCORE (www.demscore.se) research infrastructure (see more below). Via the DEMSCORE data retrieval tool, 838 unique SPIN variables have been downloaded a total of 7111 times between 2023-2024. DEMSCORE makes it possible for users to customize their own datasets by downloading single or a combination of SPIN variables and combine this data with variables from other social sciences datasets.
The SPIN-database has generated 115 unique publications since 2019. Many of these publications are in peer reviewed academic journals, or as chapters in books with respectable publishing houses (see publications). There is probably a great number of unrecorded publications using SPIN-data as we do not have an effective monitor system in place. The numbers above are simply gathered from a sweep using Google Scholar.
Unforeseen problems
We did not consider it feasible within this project to make the childcare policy data module ready for publication. To finalize this module, we need access to national experts, which requires both additional financing and collaboration with international policy networks. We are in negotiations with the Parental Leave Network to set up a Child Care and Early Education Network. The main idea of this network would be to co-create the SPIN childcare policy data module and publish it online on our website. Financial constraints also forced us to postpone our data pilot on the generational structures of social rights and immigrant’s social rights. Both pilots are far from abandoned, and will start again once new funding is available.
Organisational integration
SPIN is now part of DEMSCORE, which is a major Swedish investment in social science research data infrastructures financed by the Swedish Research Council and the partner universities. SPIN is thus an integral part of the infrastructure work carried out at Stockholm university, and at its home base in the Swedish Institute for Social Research.
Open science
The SPIN-database is free to use and fully downloadable online.
International collaboration
We have collaborated closely with the EU InGRID advanced infrastructure project and the OECD. The former collaboration was especially important for our work on immigrant’s social rights, as well as childcare and early education. The latter collaboration was crucial for our work on the housing benefit module.