Intergovernmental Alignment, Program Effectiveness, and U.S. Homelessness Policy

David Lee and Michael McGuire

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2017, vol. 47, issue 4, 622-647

Abstract: In the U.S. intergovernmental system, state governments can voluntarily and strategically align with federal government strategies and objectives. This study examines the effect of intergovernmental alignment on federal homelessness program outcomes. In 2010, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness started the first national-level comprehensive strategic plan on homelessness: Opening Doors. The Opening Doors plan highlights intergovernmental partnerships as effective tools to implement federal homeless programs to different levels of governments in order to achieve federal outcomes. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that county governments that align their homelessness program with the federal and state government have better program outcomes than those that do not align intergovernmentally. Our findings help to expand our understanding of intergovernmental mechanisms as effective policy tools to achieve federal program outcomes at the local level in the absence of financial inducements or legal mandates.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjx044 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:publus:v:47:y:2017:i:4:p:622-647.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco

More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().