The Distributional Impact of Public Goods

1980 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Raymond ◽  
Michael Sesnowitz
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Public Project ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Impure Public Goods ◽  
Pure Public Good ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Distributional Impact

Aspects of the method developed by Aaron and McGuire and Maital (AMM) for estimating the benefit distributions associated with the provision of pure public goods are clarified and the method is extended to cover the case of public projects designed to improve the quality of impure public goods. The extended method is used to estimate the distributional impact of a proposed public project in the Cleveland-Akron metropolitan region, and the results are compared with estimates obtained from three naive models and from the AMM model for pure public goods. It is found that the native models overestimate substantially the net benefits received by low-income families and underestimate the net benefits received by high-income families. Using the AMM method for a pure public good similarly distorts the results, though by a much smaller magnitude.

scholarly journals Walk the Talk? The Effect of Voting and Excludability in Public Goods Experiments

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans J. Czap ◽  
Natalia V. Czap ◽  
Esmail Bonakdarian
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Public Project ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Other Regarding

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of voting and excludability on individual contributions to group projects. We conducted two experiments on excludable and nonexcludable public goods, which provided several important results. First, contrary to our expectations, subjects are generally contributing more to the non-excludable compared to the excludable public good. Second, participating in a vote to choose a public project per se makes no difference in contributions. However, if the project that the individual voted for also gets selected by the group, they contribute significantly more to that project. Third, empathy and locus of control are important driving forces of participation in common projects. Our results have implications on the procedural design of obtaining funding for public projects. First, the public should get involved and have a say in the determination of which project should be realized. Second, it might well pay off to attempt to develop a consensus among the population and obtain near unanimous votes, because in our experiment, subjects discriminate between the project they voted for and the project chosen by the majority. Third, the policy proposers should stress the other-regarding interest of the public good rather than just pecuniary incentives.

scholarly journals THE GUIDELINE FOR CUSTOMISING INCREMENTAL HOUSING BASED ON TWO CHILEAN CASE STUDIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-175
Author(s):  
Goran Ivo Marinovic
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Construction Design ◽  
Responsibility Of Government ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Incremental Construction ◽  
Incremental Housing ◽  
Low Income Households

Incremental housing, supported by governmental funding, denotes a solution for low-income households where they can gradually customise their dwelling. The Chilean government officials and architects proposed phases of construction which fell short of addressing the households’ capabilities and motivation to finalise their units. Hereof, this article looks at two incremental housing projects: Lo Espejo condominium (2007) and Las Higueras (2006) in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile, to inquire capacities of government officials and architects’ comprehensive assistance to families’ housebuilding. The hypothesis holds that the greater responsibility of government officials and architects engaged with incremental housing will enhance motivation of low-income families to customise their house by self-building practice. Arguing for the importance of the self-building the author proposed the guideline for customising houses that comprises four phases: introducing the incremental construction design idea, discussing with families the possibilities for completing houses, connecting households’ construction plans with their financial resources, and presenting the customisation design template. This guideline structure is founded on extensive nine months fieldwork in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, carried out in close collaboration with low-income households from two neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Chile, the Architectural Office Elemental, and “Gubbins Arquitectos.”

Reforming Family Transfers in Southern Europe: Is there a Role for Universal Child Benefits?

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manos Matsaganis ◽  
Cathal O'Donoghue ◽  
Horacio Levy ◽  
Manuela Coromaldi ◽  
Magda Mercader-Prats ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Income Transfers ◽  
Child Benefits ◽  
Family Transfers ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Families With Children ◽  
Distributional Impact

The drive to reduce child poverty is of particular interest in southern Europe, where public assistance to low-income families with children is often meagre or not available at all. The paper examines the effect of income transfers to families in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal using a benefit-tax model. The distributional impact of actual programmes is shown to be weak, hence the scope for reform great. As an illustration, the European benefit-tax model EUROMOD is used to simulate universal child benefits equivalent to those in Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The anti-poverty effect of such benefits is found to be in proportion to their fiscal cost.

Demonstrating Nutrient Cost Gradients: A Brooklyn Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 244-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Karp ◽  
Gary Wong ◽  
Marguerite Orsi
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Food Selection ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Caloric Density ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Introduction: Foods dense in micronutrients are generally more expensive than those with higher energy content. These cost-differentials may put low-income families at risk of diminished micronutrient intake. Objectives: We sought to determine differences in the cost for iron, folate, and choline in foods available for purchase in a low-income community when assessed for energy content and serving size. Methods: Sixty-nine foods listed in the menu plans provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for low-income families were considered, in 10 domains. The cost and micronutrient content for-energy and per-serving of these foods were determined for the three micronutrients. Exact Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for comparisons of energy costs; Spearman rho tests for comparisons of micronutrient content. Ninety families were interviewed in a pediatric clinic to assess the impact of food cost on food selection. Results: Significant differences between domains were shown for energy density with both cost-for-energy (p < 0.001) and cost-per-serving (p < 0.05) comparisons. All three micronutrient contents were significantly correlated with cost-for-energy (p < 0.01). Both iron and choline contents were significantly correlated with cost-per-serving (p < 0.05). Of the 90 families, 38 (42 %) worried about food costs; 40 (44 %) had chosen foods of high caloric density in response to that fear, and 29 of 40 families experiencing both worry and making such food selection. Conclusion: Adjustments to USDA meal plans using cost-for-energy analysis showed differentials for both energy and micronutrients. These differentials were reduced using cost-per-serving analysis, but were not eliminated. A substantial proportion of low-income families are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies.

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