IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecdequ/v14y2000i4p323-339.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Block Granting Welfare: Fiscal Impact on the States

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth T. Powers

    (University of Illinois)

Abstract

Welfare reform changed the federal funding mechanism for state-run welfare programs for families from an open-ended match to fixed block grants. Major concerns about reform were that states would receive less federal funding in the long run and face hard-to-plan-for volatility in demands for state funds. This article uses historical expenditure data to explore the potential increased burden on state fiscal systems due to welfare reform. The author simulates states’ use of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Block Grants, the Treasury Fund, and the Federal Contingency Fund. Potential changes in state spending burdens and state funding volatility are analyzed. This fiscal accounting exercise reveals that although the total expense to the federal government would be reduced little by this switch, the new system creates huge disparities in both the resources available to various states and their potential scope for reducing the cost of their welfare programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth T. Powers, 2000. "Block Granting Welfare: Fiscal Impact on the States," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 14(4), pages 323-339, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:14:y:2000:i:4:p:323-339
    DOI: 10.1177/089124240001400401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/089124240001400401
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/089124240001400401?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Howard Chernick, 1998. "Fiscal Effects of Block Grants for the Needy: An Interpretation of the Evidence," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 5(2), pages 205-233, May.
    2. Dye, Richard F. & McGuire, Therese J., 1991. "Growth and Variability of State Individual Income and General Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 44(1), pages 55-66, March.
    3. Dye, Richard F. & McGuire, Therese J., 1991. "Growth and Variability of State Individual Income and General Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 44(1), pages 55-66, March.
    4. Saavedra, Luz Amparo, 2000. "A Model of Welfare Competition with Evidence from AFDC," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 248-279, March.
    5. Figlio, David N. & Kolpin, Van W. & Reid, William E., 1999. "Do States Play Welfare Games?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-454, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mildred Warner, 2009. "Civic government or market-based governance? The limits of privatization for rural local governments," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(1), pages 133-143, March.
    2. Marton, James & Wildasin, David E., 2007. "State government cash and in-kind benefits: Intergovernmental fiscal transfers and cross-program substitution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Geiguen Shin & Jeremy L. Hall, 2018. "Exploring the Influence of Federal Welfare Expenditures on State-Level New Economy Development Performance: Drawing From the Diffusion of Innovation Theory," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 32(3), pages 242-256, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis Ayala & Elena Bárcena-Martín & Jorge Martínez-Vázquez, 2022. "Devolution in the U.S. Welfare Reform: Divergence and Degradation in State Benefits," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(3), pages 701-726, September.
    2. Boarnet, Marlon G. & Glazer, Amihai, 2002. "Federal grants and yardstick competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 53-64, July.
    3. Igor Goncharov & Martin Jacob, 2014. "Why Do Countries Mandate Accrual Accounting for Tax Purposes?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 1127-1163, December.
    4. Sunjoo Kwak & Jongmin Shon, 2022. "Tax Salience and Cyclical Asymmetry in Tax Rate Adjustments: Testing the Indirect Tax Hypothesis," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 240(1), pages 3-29, March.
    5. Jan K. Brueckner, 2023. "Is strategic interaction among governments just a modern phenomenon? Evidence on welfare competition under Britain’s 19th-century Poor Law," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(4), pages 879-912, August.
    6. Baicker, Katherine, 2005. "The spillover effects of state spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 529-544, February.
    7. Martial Foucault & Thierry Madies & Sonia Paty, 2008. "Public spending interactions and local politics. Empirical evidence from French municipalities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 57-80, October.
    8. Alison Felix, 2008. "The growth and volatility of state tax revenue sources in the Tenth District," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 93(Q III), pages 63-88.
    9. Donald Bruce & William F. Fox & M. H. Tuttle, 2006. "Tax Base Elasticities: A Multi‐State Analysis of Long‐Run and Short‐Run Dynamics," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(2), pages 315-341, October.
    10. Koethenbuerger, Marko, 2014. "Competition for migrants in a federation: Tax or transfer competition?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 110-118.
    11. Yilin Hou, 2005. "Fiscal Reserves and State Own-Source Expenditure in Downturn Years," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 117-144, January.
    12. Fredriksson, Per G. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2002. "Strategic Interaction and the Determination of Environmental Policy across U.S. States," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 101-122, January.
    13. Caldeira, Emilie, 2012. "Yardstick competition in a federation: Theory and evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 878-897.
    14. John Deskins & Brian Hill & Laura Ullrich, 2010. "Education Spending and State Economic Growth: Are All Dollars Created Equal?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(1), pages 45-59, February.
    15. Feld Lars P. & Reulier Emmanuelle, 2009. "Strategic Tax Competition in Switzerland: Evidence from a Panel of the Swiss Cantons," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 91-114, February.
    16. Saavedra, Luz A., 2003. "Tests for spatial lag dependence based on method of moments estimation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 27-58, January.
    17. Jason Bram & Andrew F. Haughwout & James A. Orr & Robert W. Rich & Rae D. Rosen, 2004. "The linkage between regional economic indexes and tax bases: evidence from New York," Staff Reports 188, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    18. Sole-Olle, Albert, 2006. "Expenditure spillovers and fiscal interactions: Empirical evidence from local governments in Spain," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 32-53, January.
    19. Esteller-More, Alex & Sole-Olle, Albert, 2001. "Vertical income tax externalities and fiscal interdependence: evidence from the US," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2-3), pages 247-272, April.
    20. Yota Deli & Derek Lambert & Martina Lawless & Kieran McQuinn & Edgar L. W. Morgenroth, 2017. "How Sensitive is Irish Income Tax Revenue to Underlying Economic Activity?," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 48(3), pages 317-336.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:14:y:2000:i:4:p:323-339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.