政府部門的社會支出佔國内（民）生產總額的百分比，向來是 比較各國福利投入最常用的量數。然而，由於該項量數並未考慮税 式支出與福利需求對社會支出的影響，使得此種跨國比較受到若干 質疑。本文嘗試在傳統慣用的量數中，引入這兩項在理論上與福利 投入相關的因素，並透過九個已開發國家的社會支出比較，探討這 兩項因素與其衍生的修正量數，在跨國研究中的實證效果。結果顯 示，這兩項因素與政府部門的社會支出規模（包含或排除教育支出 部份），都不具有顯著的統計相關性。使用修正後的兩項量數來分 析跨國福利投入，也並未明顯改變傳統比較結果。總之，控制税式 支出與福利需求的跨國差異，在理論上預期會有效改善傳統的福利 投入國際比較，但是在本實證研究中，此種效果並不顯著。

Without considering tax expenditure and welfare need, a widely used measure of welfare effort — government social expenditure as share of gross domestic product (or gross national product) — has been questioned that it may oversimplify or distort comparative welfare efforts across nations. This study aims to examine the effects of involving the two ignored components in an international comparison. Results show that neither tax expenditure nor welfare need has a strong correlation statistically with social expenditure for nine developed nations in the comparison. Of the alternative measures modified for either component of interest, moreover, none differs significantly from the conventional measure in the appraisal of welfare efforts across nations. The findings remain consistent regardless of the comparison including education expenditure or not. In conclusion, controlling for the discrepancies in tax expenditure and welfare need among nations is considered justifiable in theory to refine the conventional measure of welfare effort in the international comparison; the conceptually expected effect, however, is not significant in this empirical study.