IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedhep/y2011iqivp113-136nv.35no.4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do benefit adjustments for government transfer programs compare with their participants' inflation experiences?

Author

Abstract

The authors measure the inflation experienced by demographic groups that likely received benefits from major government transfer programs during the period 1980?2010. They then compare the group-specific inflation measures with the transfer programs? benefit adjustments, which are typically based on aggregate inflation. The extent to which the program benefits keep up with group inflation differs across the programs and their targeted groups, depending on both the ways in which the benefits are adjusted for price changes and the spending patterns of the various groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Leslie McGranahan & Anna L. Paulson, 2011. "How do benefit adjustments for government transfer programs compare with their participants' inflation experiences?," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 35(Q IV), pages 113-136.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhep:y:2011:i:qiv:p:113-136:n:v.35no.4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publications/economic_perspectives/2011/4qtr2011_part2_mcgranahan_paulson.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, 2001. "Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1063-1114.
    2. Bart Hobijn & David Lagakos, 2005. "Inflation Inequality In The United States," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 51(4), pages 581-606, December.
    3. Hanson, Kenneth & Andrews, Margaret S., 2008. "Rising Food Prices Take a Bite Out of Food Stamp Benefits," Economic Information Bulletin 58624, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Congressional Budget Office, 2010. "Using a Different Measure of Inflation for Indexing Federal Programs and the Tax Code," Reports 21228, Congressional Budget Office.
    5. Carlson, Andrea & Lino, Mark & Juan, WenYen & Hanson, Kenneth & Basiotis, P. Peter, 2007. "Thrifty Food Plan, 2006," CNPP Reports 42899, United States Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
    6. Leslie McGranahan, 2008. "Food inflation and the consumption patterns of U.S. households," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Oct.
    7. Robert Haveman & Karen Holden & Kathryn Wilson & Barbara Wolfe, 2003. "Social security, age of retirement, and economic well-being: Intertemporal and demographic patterns among retired-worker beneficiaries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(2), pages 369-394, May.
    8. Congressional Budget Office, 2010. "Using a Different Measure of Inflation for Indexing Federal Programs and the Tax Code," Reports 21228, Congressional Budget Office.
    9. Congressional Budget Office, 2010. "Using a Different Measure of Inflation for Indexing Federal Programs and the Tax Code," Reports 21228, Congressional Budget Office.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Oliveira, Victor & Prell, Mark & Tiehen, Laura & Smallwood, David, 2018. "Design Issues in USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Looking Ahead by Looking Back," Economic Research Report 276253, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Sabrina K. Young & Hayden Stewart, 2022. "U.S. Fruit and Vegetable Affordability on the Thrifty Food Plan Depends on Purchasing Power and Safety Net Supports," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-12, February.
    3. Marianne P. Bitler & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2010. "The State of Social Safety Net in the Post-Welfare Reform Era," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 41(2 (Fall)), pages 71-147.
    4. Carlos Garcimartín & Jhonatan Astudillo & André Martínez, 2021. "Inflation and income distribution in Central America, Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 315-339, February.
    5. Bruch, Sarah K. & van der Naald, Joseph & Gornick, Janet C., 2022. "Poverty Reduction through Federal and State Policy Mechanisms: Variation Over Time and Across the U.S. States," SocArXiv jz5xp, Center for Open Science.
    6. Marco Francesconi & Wilbert van der Klaauw, 2007. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of "In-Work" Benefit Reform for British Lone Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(1).
    7. Maximilian D. Schmeiser, 2012. "The impact of long‐term participation in the supplemental nutrition assistance program on child obesity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 386-404, April.
    8. Hélène Périvier, 2007. "Les femmes sur le marché du travail aux Etats-Unis: une mise en perspective avec la France et la Suède," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-00972845, HAL.
    9. Steven Shulman, 2001. "Family structure and the afro-euro poverty gap: When employment policies aren't enough," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 47-66, December.
    10. Bargain, Olivier & Orsini, Kristian, 2006. "In-work policies in Europe: Killing two birds with one stone?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 667-697, December.
    11. Marianne P. Bitler & Madeline Zavodny, 2014. "Medicaid: A Review of the Literature," NBER Working Papers 20169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Raven E. Saks & Abigail Wozniak, 2011. "Labor Reallocation over the Business Cycle: New Evidence from Internal Migration," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(4), pages 697-739.
    13. Charles Gottlieb & Maren Froemel, 2015. "General Equilibrium Effects of Targeted Transfers: The case of EITC," 2015 Meeting Papers 1264, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Ganghua Mei & Lei Yue, 2022. "Labor supply and time use: evidence from cohabiting women in the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(44), pages 5133-5158, September.
    15. Richard Blundell & Mike Brewer & Marco Francesconi, 2008. "Job Changes and Hours Changes: Understanding the Path of Labor Supply Adjustment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 421-453, July.
    16. Can, Zeynep Gizem & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Sologon, Denisa Maria & Smith, Darius & Griffin, Rosaleen & Murray, Una, 2023. "Modelling the Distributional Effects of the Cost-of-Living Crisis in Turkey and the South Caucasus: A Microsimulation Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 16619, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Karel Lacina, 2011. "Remarks to the Development of Public Administration from the Concept of ½Government½ to the Concept of ½Governance½," ACTA VSFS, University of Finance and Administration, vol. 5(2), pages 126-147.
    18. John C. Ham & Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, 2005. "Did Expanding Medicaid Affect Welfare Participation?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(3), pages 452-470, April.
    19. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2009. "Designing a Carbon Tax to Reduce U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 3(1), pages 63-83, Winter.
    20. Albanesi, Stefania & Olivetti, Claudia & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2022. "Families, labor markets and policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118038, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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:fip:fedhep:y:2011:i:qiv:p:113-136:n:v.35no.4. 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: Lauren Wiese (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbchus.html .

    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.