IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/44y2012i13p1603-1619.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of welfare vehicle asset rules on vehicle assets

Author

Listed:
  • Mark F. Owens
  • Charles L. Baum

Abstract

Before 1996, households were typically ineligible for welfare if they had assets worth more than $1000, where $1500 from each vehicle's value was excluded from this determination. However, the 1996 welfare reform act began allowing states to increase their asset limits and vehicle exclusions. This may prompt low-income households to reallocate resources to or from vehicles. We examine the effects of state vehicle asset rules on vehicle assets. Results show that liberalizing asset rules increases vehicle assets and that this increase is driven largely by eligible individuals increasing vehicle assets, with no evidence indicating that ineligible individuals reduce vehicle assets to become eligible.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark F. Owens & Charles L. Baum, 2012. "The effects of welfare vehicle asset rules on vehicle assets," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(13), pages 1603-1619, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:44:y:2012:i:13:p:1603-1619
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2010.548783
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2010.548783
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2010.548783?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, 2001. "Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1063-1114.
    2. Robert Moffitt, 1994. "Welfare Effects on Female Headship with Area Effects," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(2), pages 621-636.
    3. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.
    4. Hubbard, R Glenn & Skinner, Jonathan & Zeldes, Stephen P, 1995. "Precautionary Saving and Social Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(2), pages 360-399, April.
    5. James P. Ziliak, 2003. "Income Transfers and Assets of the Poor," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 63-76, February.
    6. Powers, Elizabeth T., 1998. "Does means-testing welfare discourage saving? evidence from a change in AFDC policy in the United States," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 33-53, April.
    7. Engen, Eric M. & Gruber, Jonathan, 2001. "Unemployment insurance and precautionary saving," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 545-579, June.
    8. George-Marios Angeletos & David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman & Stephen Weinberg, 2001. "The Hyberbolic Consumption Model: Calibration, Simulation, and Empirical Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 47-68, Summer.
    9. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    10. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    11. Neumark, David & Powers, Elizabeth, 1998. "The effect of means-tested income support for the elderly on pre-retirement saving: evidence from the SSI program in the U.S," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 181-206, May.
    12. Williamson Hoyne, Hilary, 1997. "Does welfare play any role in female headship decisions?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 89-117, August.
    13. Lawrance, Emily C, 1991. "Poverty and the Rate of Time Preference: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(1), pages 54-77, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jessica E Todd & Young Jo & James Richard Boohaker, 2019. "The Impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Policies on Asset Holdings," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 305-328, June.
    2. Deokrye Baek & Christian Raschke, 2016. "The Impact of SNAP Vehicle Asset Limits on Household Asset Allocation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 146-175, July.
    3. Leah Hamilton & Ben Alexander-Eitzman & Whitney Royal, 2015. "Shelter From the Storm," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, February.
    4. Leah Hamilton & David Rothwell & Jin Huang & Yunju Nam & Taylor Dollar, 2019. "Guarding Public Coffers or Trapping the Poor? The Role of Public Assistance Asset Limits in Program Efficacy and Family Economic Well‐Being," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1-2), pages 12-30, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erik Hurst & James P. Ziliak, 2006. "Do Welfare Asset Limits Affect Household Saving?: Evidence from Welfare Reform," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(1).
    2. James X. Sullivan, 2006. "Welfare Reform, Saving, and Vehicle Ownership: Do Asset Limits and Vehicle Exemptions Matter?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(1).
    3. Deokrye Baek & Christian Raschke, 2016. "The Impact of SNAP Vehicle Asset Limits on Household Asset Allocation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 146-175, July.
    4. James P. Ziliak, 2003. "Income Transfers and Assets of the Poor," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 63-76, February.
    5. Timothy M. Smeeding & Katherin Ross Phillips & Michael O'Connor, 1999. "The EITC: Expectation, Knowledge, Use, and Economic and Social Mobility," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 13, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    6. Yunju Nam, 2008. "Welfare Reform and Asset Accumulation: Asset Limit Changes, Financial Assets, and Vehicle Ownership," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(1), pages 133-154, March.
    7. Marco Francesconi & Wilbert van der Klaauw, 2007. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of "In-Work" Benefit Reform for British Lone Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(1).
    8. Hero Ashman & Seth Neumuller, 2020. "Can Income Differences Explain the Racial Wealth Gap: A Quantitative Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 35, pages 220-239, January.
    9. Hilary W. Hoynes & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2009. "Consumption Responses to In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from the Introduction of the Food Stamp Program," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 109-139, October.
    10. Felix Wellschmied, 2021. "The welfare effects of asset mean‐testing income support," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(1), pages 217-249, January.
    11. Maury Gittleman, 2011. "Medicaid and Wealth: An Examination Using the NLSY79," Working Papers 448, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    12. James Sefton & Justin Van De Ven & Martin Weale, 2008. "Means Testing Retirement Benefits: fostering equity or discouraging savings?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 556-590, April.
    13. Gallagher, Emily A. & Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Grinstein-Weiss, Michal & Sabat, Jorge, 2020. "Medicaid and household savings behavior: New evidence from tax refunds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 523-546.
    14. Jessica E Todd & Young Jo & James Richard Boohaker, 2019. "The Impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Policies on Asset Holdings," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 305-328, June.
    15. Karen E. Dynan & Jonathan Skinner & Stephen P. Zeldes, 2004. "Do the Rich Save More?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 397-444, April.
    16. John Piggott & Renuka Sane, 2011. "The Impact on Residential Choice of the Family Home Exemption in Resource-Tested Transfer Programs," Working Papers 201112, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales.
    17. Francesconi, Marco & van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2004. "The consequences of ‘in-work’ benefit reform in Britain: new evidence from panel data," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-13, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    18. Miles, David & Sefton, James, 2002. "Optimal Social Security Design," CEPR Discussion Papers 3290, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Hardy Hulley & Rebecca Mckibbin & Andreas Pedersen & Susan Thorp, 2013. "Means-Tested Public Pensions, Portfolio Choice and Decumulation in Retirement," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(284), pages 31-51, March.
    20. Tullio Jappelli & Mario Padula & Luigi Pistaferri, 2008. "A Direct Test of The Buffer-Stock Model of Saving," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(6), pages 1186-1210, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:44:y:2012:i:13:p:1603-1619. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.