Abstract
Scholarly work on family policies has a long history including early twentieth-century work on family wage, child and family allowances, and maternity leave. Since then studies on family policies have expanded both in terms of the range of policies studied as well as its geographical coverage. Research on family policies has also moved from early descriptive work to analyses based on more advanced statistical techniques. In the chapter, Gauthier and Koops provide a brief history of research on family policy with a main focus on cross-national research. The chapter covers four main topics: (1) the pioneering work including early sources of data and early research on family policy; (2) more recent research on typologies of family policy regimes; (3) research on the determinants of family policy from a quantitative perspective; and (4) recent work on the consequences of family policy on various child, adult, and family-related outcomes. Gauthier and Koops conclude the chapter by discussing the shortcomings of the literature and identifying promising avenues of research.
