Redistributive Policy: Capacity and Outcomes over the Business Cycle
Sharon Mastracci
Review of Political Economy, 2007, vol. 19, issue 4, 497-512
Abstract:
This paper tests predictions of redistributive policy theory. Lowi claims that redistributive policy is not influenced by economic conditions. Limited empirical evidence exists to confirm this prediction, and what little evidence exists is indefinite. Policy theory also suggests that such a policy need not produce actual outcomes, but rather, only possess the capacity to produce outcomes. Do policy outcomes or the capacity to redistribute vary over the business cycle? I posit that neither capacity nor redistribution is affected by economic condition. This paper tests this hypothesis using results from the General Social Survey and data from the Current Population Survey. Revisiting one redistributive program during a period of economic downturn—a US Department of Labor initiative that was found to have produced measurable redistribution during the economic growth of the 1990s—this study examines both capacity and reallocation, and partially confirms that redistributive policies are impervious to recession.
Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250701622337 (text/html)
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:taf:revpoe:v:19:y:2007:i:4:p:497-512
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CRPE20
DOI: 10.1080/09538250701622337
Access Statistics for this article
Review of Political Economy is currently edited by Steve Pressman and Louis-Philippe Rochon
More articles in Review of Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().