IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inq/inqwps/ecineq2016-405.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A unified approach for measuring welfare protection under a decentralized framework

Author

Listed:
  • Luis Ayala

    (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain)

  • Elena Bárcena-Martín

    (Universidad de Málaga, Spain)

Abstract

The existing literature on welfare decentralization has not produced a robust set of measures and properties, and no consensus has emerged on how differences in the protection provided by territorial programs should be aggregated into a composite index. The measurement of the level of protection provided by decentralized minimum income programs has often focused on one of two dimensions: adequacy or coverage. The rankings of regions in terms of the protection provided can be very different depending on the chosen outcome. In this paper, we introduce several properties that should be taken into account when measuring these differences. Based on social welfare functions, we propose a parameterized family of indices that satisfy those properties and combine both dimensions. Our empirical illustration using Spanish data confirms that focusing only on standard measures of adequacy may introduce an important bias, making it difficult to properly identify real differences in terms of social welfare among programs in different jurisdictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Ayala & Elena Bárcena-Martín, 2016. "A unified approach for measuring welfare protection under a decentralized framework," Working Papers 405, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    • Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2016-405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2016-405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. Chernick, Howard, 2000. "Federal Grants and Social Welfare Spending: Do State Responses Matter?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 1), pages 143-52, March.
    3. Olivier Bargain & Herwig Immervoll & Heikki Viitamäki, 2012. "No claim, no pain. Measuring the non-take-up of social assistance using register data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 375-395, September.
    4. Baicker, Katherine, 2005. "The spillover effects of state spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 529-544, February.
    5. Dahlberg, Matz & Edmark, Karin, 2008. "Is there a "race-to-the-bottom" in the setting of welfare benefit levels? Evidence from a policy intervention," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1193-1209, June.
    6. Brown, Charles C. & Oates, Wallace E., 1987. "Assistance to the poor in a federal system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 307-330, April.
    7. Luis Ayala Cañón & Ángela Triguero Cano, 2017. "Economic Downturns, Endogenous Government Policy and Welfare Caseloads," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 220(1), pages 107-136, March.
    8. Chernick, Howard, 2000. "Federal Grants and Social Welfare Spending: Do State Responses Matter?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(1), pages 143-152, March.
    9. Foster, James E & Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1991. "Subgroup Consistent Poverty Indices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 687-709, May.
    10. Katherine Baicker, 2005. "Extensive or Intensive Generosity? The Price and Income Effects of Federal Grants," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 371-384, May.
    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. Luis Ayala & Ana Herrero & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2019. "Welfare Benefits in Highly Decentralized Fiscal Systems: Evidence on Interterritorial Mimicking," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1905, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Leung, Pauline, 2022. "State responses to federal matching grants: The case of medicaid," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    5. Saeid Mahdavi & Joakim Westerlund, 2017. "Are state–local government expenditures converging? New evidence based on sequential unit root tests," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 373-403, September.
    6. Masayoshi Hayashi, 2017. "Do Central Grants Affect Welfare Caseloads? Evidence from Public Assistance in Japan," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1064, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    7. Manuel E. Lago & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2024. "On the effects of intergovernmental grants: a survey," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(3), pages 856-908, June.
    8. Pauline Leung, 2021. "State Responses to Federal Matching Grants: The Case of Medicaid," Working Papers 647, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    9. Hansen, Mary Eschelbach, 2007. "State-designated special needs, post-adoption support, and state fiscal stress," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1411-1425, November.
    10. Manuel E. Lago & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2022. "On the effects of intergovernmental grants: a survey," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 2204, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    11. Linda Toolsema & Maarten Allers, 2014. "Welfare Financing: Grant Allocation and Efficiency," De Economist, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 147-166, June.
    12. Dahlberg, Matz & Edmark, Karin, 2008. "Is there a "race-to-the-bottom" in the setting of welfare benefit levels? Evidence from a policy intervention," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1193-1209, June.
    13. Jeffrey Clemens & Stan Veuger, 2024. "Intergovernmental Grants and Policy Competition: Concepts, Institutions, and Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Policy Responses to Tax Competition, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Edmark, Karin, 2007. "Strategic competition in Swedish local spending on childcare, schooling and care for the elderly," Working Paper Series 2007:22, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    15. Craig, Steven G. & Howard, Larry L., 2014. "Is Medicaid crowding out other state government expenditure? Internal financing and cross-program substitution," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 164-178.
    16. Parolin, Zachary & Luigjes, Christiaan, 2019. "Incentive to Retrench? Investigating the Interactions of State and Federal Social Assistance Programs after Welfare Reform," OSF Preprints s5fwr, Center for Open Science.
    17. Baicker, Katherine, 2001. "Government decision-making and the incidence of federal mandates," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 147-194, November.
    18. Federico Revelli, 2005. "On Spatial Public Finance Empirics," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(4), pages 475-492, August.
    19. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew & Schmidt, Lucie, 2020. "Federalizing benefits: The introduction of Supplemental Security Income and the size of the safety net," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    20. Luis Ayala & Ana Herrero & Jorge Martinez‐Vazquez, 2021. "Welfare benefits in highly decentralized fiscal systems: Evidence on interregional mimicking," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1178-1208, October.

    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:inq:inqwps:ecineq2016-405. 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: Maria Ana Lugo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecineea.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.