It's No Laffer'Matter: Claim That Increasing Welfare Aid Breeds Poverty and Dependence Fails Statistical Test

Abstract . The claim is analyzed that there is a Laffer-type relationship between welfare spending and poverty. Conservative analysts in recent years have asserted that over the last several decades poverty declined with increased welfare spending up to a point, beyond which increases in spending produced increases in poverty. Measures of pre-transfer and pre-welfare poverty are used in order to account for poverty due to welfare dependency. Employing data for 1959-1983, the authors find evidence which casts doubt on the validity of the hypothesis that there has been a Laffer-type relationship between welfare spending and poverty.     

Welfare Spending and Poverty: Cutting Back Produces More Poverty, Not Less

The "New Consensus " on welfare expresses the idea that the major problem in social welfare is dependency , not poverty Much of the evidence for this perspective has come from trend line data indicating that over time poverty did not evaporate in the face of increases in social welfare spending Using various measures of the "dependent" poor, the empirical analysis presented suggests that reducing welfare expenditures relative to need does not produce less poverty and dependency     

Child Poverty and Welfare Benefits: A Reassessment with State Data of the Claim That American Welfare Breeds Dependence

Abstract . Several critics of the American welfare system have claimed that it exacerbates the problem of poverty by making living in poverty preferable to acting in ways that would promote upward mobility. One version of this argument, by Gallaway and Vedder, proposes that in the 1970s this resulted in states with high welfare benefit exhibiting increases in child poverty. State data for 1970, 1980, and 1970-1980 are analyzed by means of multiple regression to assess this argument. The results suggest that the relationships between high welfare benefits, child poverty, and recipiency of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) are much less clear-cut than has been alleged. They also cast doubt on the wisdom of using aggregate data to analyze these relationships.     

The identification of predatory behavior in the presence of uncertainty

Out of the ongoing debate on what constitutes predatory behavior has surfaced the idea that it must entail a sacrifice of profits. The notion is that behavior which sacrifices profits must have an ulterior motive, namely an attempt to induce exit by rivals. This note makes the point that when incumbents must make choices before the resolution of uncertain events, a policy which sacrifices expected profits could be motivated by risk reduction. The issues surrounding the identification of predatory behavior in the presence of uncertainty are discussed, and a definition of predation which allows for uncertainty is presented.     

Guidelines for technical management of chemical process safety

The American Institute for Chemical Engineers formed the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) in March, 1985, shortly after the Bhopal tragedy. CCPS has published several technical guidelines and has sponsored needed research projects to fill gaps in technology. In addition, CCPS has sponsored several international symposia in the interest of providing forums for the interchange of the latest technology in the prevention of catastrophic events.