EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Means-Tested Transfers in the US: Facts and Parametric Estimates

Guner Nezih, Christopher Rauh and Gustavo Ventura

Cambridge Working Papers in Economics from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Abstract: How substantial are means-tested transfers in the United States? How have these transfers evolved over time, and what is their impact on the income distribution? We use microdata from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to document the scope of the main means-tested programs for households headed by working-age adults. We report key features of these programs, their generosity, and coverage by household income, marital status, and the number and age of children in the household. We also assess the role of the transfer system in reducing income inequality and document its changing magnitude and effects in recent years. Finally, we provide parametric estimates of transfers as a function of income and household characteristics for use in applied work in macroeconomics and public finance.

Keywords: Households; Income Inequality; Means-tested transfers; Parametric Estimates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H24 H31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-12-13
Note: cr542
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe2473.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cam:camdae:2473

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cambridge Working Papers in Economics from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jake Dyer (jd419@cam.ac.uk).

 
Page updated 2025-02-14
Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:2473