University of Wisconsin - Madison Institute for Researchon Poverty Discussion Papers

This paper examines the hypothesis that private agencies tend to provide more aid when the public welfare network is less extensive-i.e., that private agencies fill the gaps left by public welfare. Using data involving county emergency assistance programs, the research indicates that the private effort is indeed somewhat larger when the public network is smaller. The best predictor of the private emergency effort, however, is the extensiveness of private services in general, which is l:Ln:ked-t~ th'~:abtindance of cornmunity-~·in~'nci.~~'-resou~cesand not to the _~~_t_~_1?__iv~~§_s_ ~(_ :the....PJ:1.8.J:i-£_"tV~lf13.r.e n~twor_k. Do Private Agencies Fill Gaps in Public Welfare Programs? A Research Note Many scholars believe that private agencies play an important role in American social welfare efforts (Gr~nbjerg, 1982; Manser and Cass, 1976; McMillen, 1945), and one claim is that they provide services that the public sector is unwilling or unable to offer (Kramer, 1981). It is thought that private agencies can carry out this "gap-filling" role owing to their ability to mobilize resources from small groups of committed citizens, and "thus to provide services that only a segment of the community might favor. This claim has important policy implications. For example, it seems to be part of the current argument in government that 'pr.ivate agencies may be able to compensate for a reduction in the overall level of public welfare services. However, the few empirical studies of private agencies do not focus on the gap-filling role (Kramer, 1981; Terrel, "1979; Hartogs, 1978; D'Agostino, 1974; Perlmutter, 1971; Lambert and Lambert, 1970). It is thus unclear whether private agencies actually compensate for inadequacies in the public welfare effort. Theoretical considerations suggest that the programs provided by private agencies may not compensate for a lack of public services and may instead reflect other community conditions. Stinchcombe (1965) argues that communities differ in their ability to provide the material and personal resources needed to sustain organizations--that is, communities