Jesuit and Mahler (2004) document trends in overall measures of redistribution for the 25-59 age-group but those results do not show what drove the observed trends (for instance, changes are not shown separately for taxes and benefits, and do not distinguish between changes in the progressivity and the size of redistribution instruments). The substantial gains in female employment rates over the past two decades provide a striking example of a long-term trend that is not simply a consequence of reforms to redistribution policies. For policy analysis purposes, it is therefore informative to distinguish between changes in redistribution that can be directly attributed to tax-benefit policy reforms (referred to as direct policy changes in what follows), and those that have occurred as a result of the evolution of market incomes or population structures (referred to as income and population changes).