Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:59:33.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Public Welfare Spending and Private Social Services in U.S. States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Robert C. Lowry
Robert C. Lowry*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
*
Robert C. Lowry, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Rd., GR 31 Richardson, TX 75080, USA Email: robert.lowry@utdallas.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Social services in the United States are supplied by both the public and private sectors. Previous political science research has focused on public transfers or Medicaid; I study “Other Public Welfare” programs that include contracts and grants to private social services providers, focusing on the relationship between the two sectors. My results imply that an increase in either Other Public Welfare spending or private individual and family services employees leads to an increase in the other sector. I find weaker evidence of similar relationships involving private residential care or day care services, and private social services employment is generally independent of public spending on transfers and Medicaid. My results have implications for the full effects of changes in public welfare spending, including the effects on the private sector, as well as the effects of organized interests on public welfare spending.

Keywords

public welfare spendingsocial servicesnonprofit organizationsinterest groups
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 3 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alesina Alberto, Reza Baqir, and Easterly, William. 1999. “Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(November): 1243–84.Google Scholar
Manuel, Arellano, and Bond, Stephen. 1991. “Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations.” The Review of Economic Studies 58(April): 277–97.Google Scholar
Association of Religion Data Archives. 2011. U.S. Congregational Membership: State Reports. http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/selectState.asp (Accessed June 29, 2012).Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael A., and Rom, Mark Carl. 2004. “A Wider Race? Interstate Competition across Health and Welfare Programs.” The Journal of Politics 66(May): 326–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrilleaux, Charles, Holbrook, Thomas, and Langer, Laura. 2002. “Electoral Competition, Legislative Balance, and American State Welfare Policy.” American Journal of Political Science 46(April): 415–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel. 2001. “Time-Series-Cross-Section Data: What Have We Learned in the Past Few Years?” Annual Review of Political Science 4:271–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Jeffrey M. (with Arons, David F.). 2003. A Voice for Nonprofits. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Berry, William D., and Baybeck, Brady. 2005. “Using Geographic Information Systems to Study Interstate Competition.” American Political Science Review 99(November): 505–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Ringquist, Evan J., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 1998. “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States, 1960-93.” American Journal of Political Science 42(January): 327–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, Arthur C. 2000. “Public Subsidies and Charitable Giving: Crowding out, Crowding in, or Both?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 19(Summer): 451–64.3.0.CO;2-E>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Robert D. 1995. “Party Cleavages and Welfare Effort in the American States.” American Political Science Review 89(March): 23–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbin, John J. 1999. “A Study of Factors Influencing the Growth of Nonprofits in Social Services.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 28(September): 296–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Boef, Suzanna, and Keele, Luke. 2008. “Taking Time Seriously.” American Journal of Political Science 52(January): 184–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faricy, Christopher. 2011. “The Politics of Social Policy in America: The Causes and Effects of Indirect vs. Direct Social Spending.” The Journal of Politics 73:74–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fellowes, Matthew C, and Rowe, Gretchen. 2004. “Politics and the New American Welfare States.” American Journal of Political Science 48(April): 362–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamm, Gerald, and Putnam, Robert D.. 1999. “The Growth of Voluntary Associations in America, 1840-1940.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29(Spring): 511–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, Virginia, and Lowery, David. 1996. The Population Ecology of Interest Representation: Lobbying Communities in the American States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gr⊘nbjerg, Kirsten A. 2001. “The U.S. Nonprofit Human Service Sector: A Creeping Revolution.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 30(June): 276–97.Google Scholar
Gr⊘nbjerg, Kirsten A, and Paarlberg, Laurie. 2001. “Community Variations in the Size and Scope of the Nonprofit Sector: Theory and Preliminary Findings.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 30(December): 684–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S. 2002. The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, Estelle. 1987. “The Public/Private Division of Responsibility for Education: An International Comparison.” Economics of Education Review 6(1): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Ralph M. 1987. “Voluntary Agencies and the Personal Social Services.” In The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, ed. Powell, Walter W.. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 240–57.Google Scholar
Lowry, Robert C. 1997. “The Private Production of Public Goods: Organizational Maintenance, Managers' Objectives, and Collective Goods.” American Political Science Review 91(June): 308–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowry, Robert C. 2005. “Explaining the Variation in Organized Civil Society across States and Time.” The Journal of Politics 67(May): 574–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowry, Robert C, and Potoski, Matthew. 2004. “Organized Interests and the Politics of Discretionary Federal Grants.” The Journal of Politics 66(May): 513–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luksetich, William. 2008. “Government Funding and Nonprofit Organizations.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 37(September): 434–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, Dennis C. 2003. Public Choice III. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Percival, Garrick L., Johnson, Martin, and Nieman, Max. 2009. “Representation and Local Policy: Relating County-Level Public Opinion to Policy Outputs.” Political Research Quarterly 62(March): 164–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Paul E. 1981. City Limits. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Primo, David M. 2007. Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Elizabeth J. 1999. “Nonprofit Advocacy and Political Participation.” In Nonprofits and Government: Collaboration and Conflict, eds. Boris, Elizabeth T. and Eugene Steuerle, C.. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press, 291–325.Google Scholar
Salamon, Lester M. 1995. Partners in Public Service: Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven Rathgeb, and Lipsky, Michael. 1993. Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven Rathgeb. 2002. “Social Services.” In The State of Nonprofit America, ed. Salamon, Lester M.. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 149–86.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000a. Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 1999. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000b. “Government Employment and Payroll.” http://www.census.gov/govs/apes/historical_data_2000.html (Accessed June 29, 2012).Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2001. Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. “Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual.” http://www.census.gov/govs/www/class.html (Accessed June 29, 2012).Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. Various-a. Government Finances. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. Various-b. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. Various-c. “County Business Patterns.” http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/index.html (Accessed June 29, 2012).Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. House of Representatives. Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. 1995. The Istook-McIntosh-Ehrlich Proposal. 104th Cong., 1st Sess., 28 September.Google Scholar
Craig, Volden. 2002. “The Politics of Competitive Federalism: A Race to the Bottom in Welfare Benefits?” American Journal of Political Science 46(April): 352–63.Google Scholar
Walker, Jack L. Jr. 1991. Mobilizing Interest Groups in America: Patrons, Professions, and Social Movements. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wawro, Gregory. 2002. “Estimating Dynamic Panel Models in Political Science.” Political Analysis 10(Winter): 25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wuthnow, Robert. 1999. “Mobilizing Civic Engagement: The Changing Impact of Religious Involvement.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, eds. Skocpol, Theda and Fiorina, Morris P.. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press, 331–63.Google Scholar