1999/03/01 by Lane Kenworthy · 6 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth #Income, Poverty, and Inequality #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1093/sf/77.3.1119
openalex publication_date 1999/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Most social scientists, policymakers, and citizens who support the welfare state do so in part because they believe social-welfare programs help to reduce the incidence of poverty. Yet a growing number of critics assert that such programs in fact fail to decrease poverty, because too small a share of transfers actually reaches the poor, or because such programs create a welfare/poverty trap, or because they weaken the economy. This study assesses the effects of social-welfare policy extensiveness on poverty rates across fifteen affluent industrialized nations over the period 1960–91, using both absolute and relative measures of poverty. The results strongly support the conventional view that social-welfare programs reduce poverty.