Arbeitspapier

Local governments, in-kind transfers, and economic inequality

We examine how in-kind transfers provided by local governments affect economic inequality. The allocation of in-kind transfers to households and the adjustment for differences in needs are derived from a model of local government spending behavior. The model distinguishes between fixed and variable costs in production as well as mandatory programmatic spending components versus discretionary spending on different service sectors and target groups. To estimate the model, we combine Norwegian data from municipal accounts and administrative registers for the period 1982- 2013. We find that economic inequality is considerably lower when taking in-kind transfers into account. While the poor benefit from receiving a relatively large share of public services, the equalizing effect of in-kind transfers tends to be smaller than the equalizing contribution from public cash transfers. When examining the time trends in inequality, we find that local governments attenuated the growth in cash income inequality by re-allocating in-kind transfers to low-income families. This reduction in inequality is mostly due to changes in spending priorities across service sectors and target groups, whilst the contribution from re-allocation of resources across municipalities is much smaller.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Discussion Papers ; No. 888

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
State and Local Budget and Expenditures
Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: General
Thema
Local government
economic inequality
public services
in-kind transfers

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Mogstad, Magne
Aaberge, Rolf
Eika, Lasse
Langørgen, Audun
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Statistics Norway, Research Department
(wo)
Oslo
(wann)
2018

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Mogstad, Magne
  • Aaberge, Rolf
  • Eika, Lasse
  • Langørgen, Audun
  • Statistics Norway, Research Department

Entstanden

  • 2018

Ähnliche Objekte (12)