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Income Maintenance Programs and Multidimensional Screening

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Author Info
Joel Shapiro ()

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Abstract

This paper examines properties of optimal poverty assistance programs under different informational environments using an income maintenance framework. To that end, we make both the income generating ability and the disutility of labor of individuals unobservable, and compare the resulting benefit schedules with those of programs found in the United States since Welfare Reform (1996). We find that optimal programs closely resemble a Negative Income Tax with a Benefit Reduction rate that depends on the distribution of population characteristics. A policy of workfare (unpaid public sector work) is inefficient when disutility of labor is unobservable, but minimum work requirements (for paid work) may be used in that same environment. The distortions to work incentives and the presence of minimum work requirements depend on the observability and relative importance of the population's characteristics.

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File URL: http://www.econ.upf.edu/docs/papers/downloads/544.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in its series Economics Working Papers with number 544.

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Date of creation: Apr 2001
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Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:544

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Related research
Keywords: Welfare programs; optimal taxation; multidimensional screening;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs

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  1. De Donder, Philippe & Hindricks, Jean, 2005. "Policy-oriented Parties and the Choice Between Social and Private Insurance," CEPR Discussion Papers 4864, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Philippe, DE DONDER & Jean, HINDRIKS, 2006. "Equilibrium Social Insurance with Policy-Motivated Parties," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006018, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Craig Brett & John A. Weymark, 2000. "Financing Education Using Optimal Redistributive Taxation," Working Papers 0038, Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, revised May 2001. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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