Tax Evasion, Welfare Fraud, and “The Broken Windows” Effect: An Experiment in Belgium, France and the Netherlands In a series of experiments conducted in Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), France and the Netherlands, we compare behavior regarding tax evasion and welfare dodging, with and without information about others’ behavior. Subjects have to decide between a ‘registered’ income, the realiza...

Recently published studies that investigate the effect of benefit cuts on the employment prospects of unemployed show that sanctions substantially increase the probability of an individual to get employed. This evidence suggests at first sight that benefit sanctions are an effective tool in the activation process of the unemployed and should be used more frequently by welfare agencies to enhanc...

This paper re-examines the labor supply responses in the Seattle and Denver Income Maintenance Experiments (SIME/DIME). Specifically, the original experimental results show a larger labor supply response for men and women from dual-headed households in the five-year treatment relative to those in the three-year treatment. Although typically thought of as a Negative Income Tax (NIT) Experiment, ...

The Health Implications of Social Pensions: Evidence from China’s New Rural Pension Scheme* This paper estimates the causal effect of income on health outcomes of the elderly and investigates underlying mechanisms by exploiting an income change induced by the launch of China’s New Rural Pension scheme (NRPS). Using this policy experiment, we address the endogeneity of pension income by applying...

In cross-sectional studies, countries with greater income inequality typically exhibit less support for government-led redistribution and greater acceptance of wage inequality (e.g., United States versus Western Europe). If individual nations evolve along this pattern, a vicious cycle could form with reduced social concern amplifying primal increases in inequality due to forces like skill-biase...

The Take-Up of Social Benefits This paper offers a review of recent literature regarding the take up of social programs in the U.S. and U.K. A few general conclusions are drawn: First, take up is enhanced by automatic or default enrollment and lowered by administrative barriers, although removing individual barriers does not necessarily have much effect, suggesting that one must address the who...

In the Proceedings of the Royal Society (Series B., Vol. 76, p. I38) Professor Moore published a series of observations which he, together with Messrs. Alexander, Kelly and Roaf, had made on the gastric contents of patients who were suffering from carcinoma situated in various parts of the body. As the result of these observations they came to the conclusion that the well known absence of free ...

This paper examines the impact of a poverty alleviation program called the District Poverty Initiatives Project (DPIP), which is being implemented in the second largest state in India. DPIP is a World Bank project based on the community-driven development approach, wherein control of development decisions, resources and projects are given to the community groups. Funds are allocated to the vill...

Early Child Care and Child Development: For Whom it Works and Why Many countries are currently expanding access to child care for young children. But are all children equally likely to benefit from such expansions? We address this question by adopting a marginal treatment effects framework. We study the West German setting where high quality center-based care is severely rationed and use within...

Health and the Evolution of Welfare across Brazilian Municipalities This paper describes the pattern of reductions in mortality across Brazilian municipalities between 1970 and 2000, and analyzes its causes and consequences. It shows that, as in the international context, the relationship between income and life expectancy has shifted consistently in the recent past. But reductions in mortality...