Our purpose in this paper is to speculate on the cyclicality of state fiscal responses under welfare reform. In particular, how will they respond during the next recession? We draw lessons from several literatures and present some new evidence. An important literature estimates the spending responses of governments to matching and block grants. We also summarize studies that examine the incentives states have to mimic their neighbors' spending levels, as well as studies of the substitutability of spending across programs. We conclude that the "price effect" of the shift from matching grants to block grants is likely to be small, at least in the short run; that the strength of the "neighbor effect", and thus the likelihood of a race to the bottom, is also small if not uncertain; and that the evidence that different welfare programs are close substitutes for one another in a state's budget is suggestive, but tentative.
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for
download. To find whether it is available, there are three
options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page
whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be
available.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research in its series JCPR Working Papers with number
67.
Length: Date of creation: 01 Jan 1999 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:wop:jopovw:67
Note: This paper is not available for download Contact details of provider: Postal: Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, 1155 E. 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Phone: 773-702-0472 Email: Web page: http://www.jcpr.org/wp/ByDate.html More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Thomas Krichel).
Related research
Keywords:
Other versions of this item:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)