A re-examination of welfare states and inequality in rich nations: How in-kind transfers and indirect taxes change the story

Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater and Timothy M. Smeeding
Additional contact information
Irwin Garfinkel: Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, Postal: Columbia University School of Social Work, New York
Lee Rainwater: Harvard University, Postal: Harvard University
Timothy M. Smeeding: Syracuse University, Postal: Syracuse University

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2006, vol. 25, issue 4, 897-919

Abstract: Previous studies find large crossnational differences in inequality amongst rich Western nations, due in large part to differences in the generosity of welfare state transfers. The United States is the least generous nation and the one having the most aftertax and transfer inequality. But these analyses are limited to the effects of cash and nearcash transfers and direct taxes on incomes, while on average, half of welfare state transfers in rich nations are inkind benefits-health insurance, education, and other services. Counting inkind benefits at government cost and accounting for the indirect taxes used to finance transfers substantially reduces crossnational differences in inequality at the bottom of the income distribution. The findings have implications for how we think about tradeoffs across welfare state domains that all nations face and we illustrate this with reference to the current U.S. debate about health insurance. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (72)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.20213 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

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:wly:jpamgt:v:25:y:2006:i:4:p:897-919

DOI: 10.1002/pam.20213

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().