Social Welfare Programs and Trust: Evidence from Six Latin American Cities
Using individual-level data that are representative at the city level for six Latin American capital cities (Bogota, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lima, Montevideo, and San José), we find that participation in government social welfare programs is negatively associated to trust, a result that is robust to the inclusion of individual risk measures and a broad array of controls. Our findings support the notion that low take-up rates may be linked to stigma and not to high transaction costs as commonly suggested (JEL D01, O12, O10).
Social work matters: Californians' perceptions of social welfare
This article reports on findings from a representative survey of Californians (N = 946) and their perception of social work and its professionals. Analysis of the survey data indicates that the public holds a generally positive view of social work and its "helping" nature, although social work is considered one of the least prestigious professions. Respondents primarily associated social work with child protection and behavioral health roles, and less often with tasks such as community organizing, promoting social justice, and crafting social policy. Implications are considered for renegotiating the identity of social work and foregrounding social justice.
Quantity, quality, equality: introducing a new measure of social welfare
In this essay I propose a new measure of social welfare. It captures the intuitive idea that quantity , quality , and equality of individual welfare all matter for social welfare. More precisely, it satisfies six conditions: Equivalence , Dominance , Quality , Strict Monotonicity , Equality and Asymmetry . These state that (i) populations equivalent in individual welfare are equal in social welfare; (ii) a population that dominates another in individual welfare is better; (iii) a population that has a higher average welfare than another population is better, other things being equal; (iv) the addition of a well-faring individual makes a population better, whereas the addition of an ill-faring individual makes a population worse; (v) a population that has a higher degree of equality than another population is better, other things being equal; and (vi) individual illfare matters more for social welfare than individual welfare. By satisfying the six conditions, the measure improves on previously proposed measures, such as the utilitarian Total and Average measures, as well as different kinds of Prioritarian measures.
