We estimate the effects of the introduction of a large cash transfer program on support for the ruling populist party in Poland. We exploit the variation at the municipal level in the annual cash transfer amount received per capita, and use a difference-in-differences research design to study...

In this paper, the relationship between the degree of centralisation and the distributive outcomes in European schemes of social assistance is investigated. For this purpose, a scheme of classification suitable for grouping the EU15 schemes according to features related to centralisation is...

This paper estimates the effects of alternative reforms of the current system of low-income housing assistance on the number of people of various types who would receive assistance. The reforms are designed to eliminate the system’s substantial inefficiencies, inequities, and bias against...

The global food price shock of 2006-2008 has particularly affected poorer strata of populations in several developing countries. In Egypt and some other countries it has put food subsidy schemes to the test. This paper develops two comparable computable general equilibrium models for Egypt and...

Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon closely related to the low accumulation of human capital and scant economic opportunities for the poor. Government efforts to help households overcome poverty require actions on multiple fronts. The governments of Latin-America and the Caribbean are...

This paper assesses the impact of social assistance benefits on household welfare in Moldova. Ignoring standard issues of impact evaluations such as selection bias, behavioral responses, unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, an incidence analysis suggests that increased spending on social...

How much have government programs improved elderly well-being? I examine the impact of OAA on mortality between 1930-1955. I construct two new data sets: a database on OAA, and a database on elderly mortality. To control for the joint determination of income and mortality, I use a simulated IV...

Despite rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, inequality in Chile has remained high and remarkably constant over the last 20 years, prompting academic and public interest in the subject. Due to data limitations, however, research on inequality in Chile has concentrated on the national and...

Proponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) set forth two primary goals: (1) to constrain health care costs and (2) to expand health insurance coverage. In its June 28, 2012 decision upholding the constitutionality of the ACA, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively...

By increasing the labor supply of welfare recipients, welfare reform may reduce wages and increase unemployment among other less-educated groups. These "spillover effects" are difficult to estimate because welfare caseloads decrease in response to improvements in the economy, which leads...