Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Welfare Reform in America

Perspectives and Prospects

  • Book
  • © 1982

Overview

Editors:
  1. Paul M. Sommers

    1. Department of Economics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, USA

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Middlebury Conference Series on Economic Issues (MCSEI)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Political Economy of Welfare Reform

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Goals and Purposes of Social Welfare Expenditures

      • Robert J. Lampman
      Pages 3-14

    3. Welfare Reform

      • William P. Albrecht
      Pages 15-28

  3. Benchmarks

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-30
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The War on Income Poverty

      • Sheldon Danziger, Robert Plotnick
      Pages 31-52

    3. The Effectiveness of Current Transfer Programs in Reducing Poverty

      • G. William Hoagland
      Pages 53-75

    4. How Effective is our Multiple-Benefit Antipoverty Program?

      • Morton Paglin
      Pages 76-97

  4. Implications of Current Programs for Reform Proposals

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-100
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The Role of Food Stamps in Welfare Reforms

      • J. Fred Giertz, Dennis H. Sullivan
      Pages 101-122

    3. What is an Appropriate Benefit Level for the Unemployed?

      • Daniel S. Hamermesh
      Pages 123-140

    4. The AFDC-Unemployed Fathers Program

      • James R. Hosek
      Pages 141-164

  5. Evaluating Next Steps

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-166
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The Evolution of the Work Issue in Welfare Reform

      • Larry L. Orr, Felicity Skidmore
      Pages 167-186

    3. Direct Job Creation

      • Robert H. Haveman
      Pages 187-208

    4. The Effect of a Negative Income Tax on Work Effort

      • Robert A. Moffitt
      Pages 209-229

    5. A Study of the Interaction between Cash Transfer Programs and Employment Programs

      • David M. Betson, David H. Greenberg
      Pages 230-252

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 253-254
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This is the second in a series of books growing out of the annual Mid­ dlebury College Conference on Economic Issues. The second confer­ ence, held in April 1980, focused on goals and realities of welfare reform. The objectives of the conference were threefold: (1) evaluation of the antipoverty effort so far; (2) discussion of welfare reform alternatives; and (3) prediction of how new initiatives would change work behavior and productivity. During the time this country has been engaged in a "war on poverty," two massive efforts to reform welfare, Richard M. Nixon's Family As­ sistance Plan (FAP) and Jimmy Carter's Program for Better Jobs and Income (PBJI), were proposed. Both defined national benefit levels and featured a negative income tax. Both measures were defeated in Congress. More modest efforts at reform have, however, changed the economic landscape. Because of the rapid growth in cash and in-kind transfer programs, income poverty is no longer the serious problem that it was in 1964. In fact, looking at the proliferation of programs and the substantial surge in participation rates, some politicians have even advocated a period of government retrenchment. In 1971, the governor of California vii viii INTRODUCTION proposed (and implemented) a major welfare reform in an attempt to stem the rapid growth of welfare caseloads that began in his state in 1967-68. He argued that savings from administrative improvements could be used to raise benefits for the "truly needy.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Economics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, USA

    Paul M. Sommers

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Welfare Reform in America

  • Book Subtitle: Perspectives and Prospects

  • Editors: Paul M. Sommers

  • Series Title: Middlebury Conference Series on Economic Issues

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7389-3

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Kluwer Nijhoff Publishing 1982

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-89838-079-8Published: 31 March 1982

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-009-7391-6Published: 06 November 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-7389-3Published: 09 April 2013

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 254

  • Topics: Economics, general

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation