The Left and Right approaches to poverty
01 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, liberalism, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: capitalism and freedom, Leftover Left, poverty and inequality, The Great Enrichment
Germany had major labour market deregulation on the eve of the global financial crisis
31 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
How the American family has changed
29 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, labour economics, welfare reform Tags: family demographics, marriage and divorce, single parents
Everybody Hates Chris, “Everybody Hates Food Stamps” (2005)
27 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, TV shows, welfare reform Tags: Everybody Hates Chris, food stamps, welfare reform
Disability insurance recipients are disproportionately older and less educated
25 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, welfare reform Tags: David Autor, disability insurance, social insurance, welfare reform
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David Autor found that the effective replacement rate of Social Security disability insurance payments for labour earnings with SSDI benefits has also risen in recent decades due both to the rising value of in-kind Medicare benefits and to a subtle interaction between the benefits formula and rising income inequality in the U.S.
This interaction causes the effective generosity for low-wage workers to rise and encourages older workers with limited education to go on the disability benefit because its income replacement rate for what they can earn in the workforce can be as high as 80% when Medicare is included. As Autor and Duggan explain:
The rapid expansion of the beneficiary population has three main causes.
First, a set of congressional reforms in 1984 to Disability Insurance screening led to rapid growth in the share of recipients suffering from back pain and mental illness. Because these disorders have comparatively low mortality, the average duration of disability spells—and hence the size of the recipient population—has increased.
Second, a rise in the after-tax DI income replacement rate—that is, the ratio of disability income to former labour earnings—strengthened the incentives for workers to seek benefits.
Third, a rapid increase in female labour force participation expanded the pool of insured workers. The aging of the baby boom generation has contributed little to the rise of receipt of disability benefits, while improvements in population health have likely reduced the incidence of disabling medical disorders.
Chapple and Boston on the extent of welfare benefit fraud in New Zealand
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, law and economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, crime and punishment, deterrence, Jonathan Boston, Simon Chapple, welfare fraud, welfare reform
What is more surprising about this honest disclosure of welfare fraud to the Household Labour Force Survey of Statistics New Zealand in 2011 is these welfare beneficiaries were so upfront about their criminal fraud.
These estimates must underestimate the extent of welfare fraud because some of these criminals would be aware that they should be slightly discreet in the company of any government official when discussing their eligibility for welfare benefits and any false information supplied in their claims for welfare benefits.
Some welfare cheats are alert to this basic criminal skill and do not claim their benefit if called in to the welfare benefits office for a reassessment of their eligibility. They don’t have the front to go near a government official while defrauding the taxpayer.
Yes, welfare fraud is a crime so people who perpetrated these crimes by obtaining welfare benefits under false pretences are criminals. If these criminals are caught, they are prosecuted for a crime and sometimes sent to prison.
HT: Muriel Newman
Child poverty and single parent households in the USA
15 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, single parenthood
Is there a link between family structure and safety? » AEI
14 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, welfare reform Tags: child abuse, domestic violence, family structures, single parents
Nature versus nurture
26 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, welfare reform Tags: child rearing
HT: Phil Hill
Was Moynihan, right? The role of prospective success in assortative mating in family poverty
19 Dec 2014 1 Comment
The unbelievable rise of single motherhood in America over the last 50 years – The Washington Post
19 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: causes of poverty, single parenthood
via The unbelievable rise of single motherhood in America over the last 50 years – The Washington Post.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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