Search Results
Journal Article
Welfare reform and the cyclicality of welfare programs
An examination of how potential welfare recipients would be affected by reform proposals calling for a reduction in benefits and a shift in fiscal responsibility from the federal government to the states, with emphasis on the sometimes substantial impact of business cycle swings on welfare caseloads and expenditures.
Working Paper
Does means-testing welfare discourage saving? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Women
An empirical test of AFDC's asset limit, finding that after correcting for the potential endogeneity of policy, a $1 difference in limits implies a difference in potential AFDC recipients' wealth of 30 cents. ; This paper uses a stochastic cost frontier to examine the scale economies, cost efficiencies, and technological change of three payments instruments--check, automated clearinghouse (ACH) transfers, and Fedwire processing--provided by the Federal Reserve over the period 1990-94.
Working Paper
Fertility and welfare participation
A look at some basic questions about the phenomenon of welfare births using data from the March 1987 Current Population Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. ; An analysis of the quantitative effects of agency costs in a real business cycle model, showing that these costs can explain why output growth displays positive autocorrelation at short horizons. ; An analysis of the quantitative effects of agency costs in a real business cycle model, showing that these costs can explain why output growth displays positive autocorrelation at short horizons.
Working Paper
Consequences of means testing Social Security: evidence from the SSI program
A treatise that draws inferences about the potential behavorial responses to means testing Social Security by examining the effects of the Supplementary Security Income program for the aged on wealth accumulation and employment.
Working Paper
The impact of AFDC on birth decisions and program participation
A longitudinal study examining how the level of AFDC benefits and the per-child increment affect births. Although the findings support the "AFDC benefits cause births" hypothesis, the author shows that eliminating the new-birth increment would reduce total program costs by less than 3 percent, since both the per-dollar effect of benefits on births and the per-child increments themselves are small.
Journal Article
Growth and poverty revisited
An explanation of an alternative analysis of poverty based on consumption rather than on annual income, which disputes the documented breakdown in progress against poverty in the 1980s and concludes that the poor appear to benefit from a growing economy now as much as in previous decades.
Journal Article
Inflation, unemployment, and poverty revisited
An examination of the impact of inflation and unemployment on poverty, using a poverty rate based on goods and services consumed, rather than on income. The findings suggest that inflation may harm the poor more than was previously thought.
Journal Article
Understanding differences in regional poverty rates
An examination of the huge variation in U.S. regional poverty rates, showing that although demographic, policy, and cost-of-living factors all play a role, economic differences are key.