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HOW INEFFICIENT ARE MULTIPLE IN‐KIND TRANSFERS?
Author(s) -
Murray Michael P.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.1994.tb01325.x
Subject(s) - economics , discounting , transfer (computing) , medicaid , present value , cash transfers , value (mathematics) , cash , poverty , microeconomics , econometrics , labour economics , demographic economics , mathematics , statistics , macroeconomics , finance , health care , parallel computing , computer science , economic growth
The inefficiencies from multiple in‐kind transfers are smaller than one would guess from studying such programs singly, though Medicaid can give rise to average discounts as large as 60 percent. The benefits from the programs are quite large relative to recipients' incomes. Effective marginal tax rates under in‐kind transfers are appreciably lower than they would be if the programs gave cash. Poverty rates among recipients are markedly lowered if one counts the value of in‐kind transfers as income; this effect is insensitive to whether one accounts for the discounting of in‐kind transfers by recipients.