This study includes the marginal cost of redistribution (MCR) in analyzing the
adjusted tax price faced by the median voter. The adjusted tax price is then used to
analyze the degree to which efficiency costs change the level of income redistribution
provided through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.
The results of this article suggest that efficiency costs, on average, raise the cost of
AFDC transfers by approximately 28% and reduces the level of AFDC redistribution
by about 14.6%.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Akerlof, G.A.1978The economics of "tagging" as applied to the optimal income tax, welfare programs, and manpower planning. American Economic Review68 (March):8-19.
2.
Browning, Edgar K.1987. On the marginal welfare cost of taxation. American Economic Review77 (March): 11-23
3.
Browning, Edgar K., and William R. Johnson .1984. The trade-off between equality and efficiency. Journal of Political Economy21 (April):175-203.
4.
Colbum, Chnstopher B.1990. A public choice explanation for the decline in real income transfers. Public Finance Quarterly18 (1):123-34.
5.
—. 1992. The changing composition of income transfer programs: A public choice analysis. Applied Economics24:161-68.
6.
Gramlich, E.M.1982. An econometric examination of the new federalism. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity no. 2:327-60.
7.
Granneman, T.R.1979. The demand for publicly financed medical care: The role of interdependent preferences. Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University.
8.
Hausman, J.A.1978. Specification tests in econometrics. Econometrica46:1251-71.
9.
Horowitz, John B.1990. The marginal cost of redistribution: Lifetime and annual perspectives. Southern Economic Journal56 (January):664-675.
10.
—. 1993. Lifetime and annual marginal cost of redistribution in England, Sweden, and the United States. Review of Economics and Statistics75 (February):143-47.
11.
Moffitt, Robert.1990. Has state redistributive policy grown more conservative ? National Tax Journal43 (June):123-42.
12.
Mutti, John H., and William E. Morgan .1983. The exportation of state and local taxes in a multilateral framework: The case of household type taxes . National Tax Journal35 (December):459-75.
13.
Orr, L.1976. Income transfers as a public good. American Economic Review66 (June):359-71.
14.
Panel Study of Income Dynamics. 1980. Ann Arbor, MI: Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research.
15.
Plotnick, R.D., and R.F. Winters.1985. A politico-economic theory of income redistribution. American Political Science Review14:223-38.
16.
Sander, William, and J. Fred Giertz.1986. The political economy of state level welfare benefits. Public Choice51:209-19.
17.
U.S. Bureau of the Census.1982. Statistical abstract of the United States: 1982-83. 103rd ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census.
18.
Wallace, T.D., and A. Hussain.1969. The use of error components models in combining cross section with time series data. Econometrica37:55-72.