HAS STATE REDISTRIBUTION POLICY GROWN MORE CONSERVATIVE?

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Abstract
Real benefits in the AFDC program have fallen drastically over the past twenty years, as state legislatures have failed to raise nominal benefit levels sufficiently to keep up with inflation. A statistical analysis of the trend suggests that real welfare benefits have declined not because of a conservative shift in voter preferences but because state legislatures have allowed federally-financed Food Stamp benefits and federally-subsidized Medicaid benefits to substitute for AFDC. The data reveal that the total transfer, including all benefit types, has grown in real terms directly in line with income growth.

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