Spending on Social Welfare Programs in Rich and Poor States: Final Report

This project, which resulted in both a key highlights issue brief and a full report, examines how a state's ability to fund social welfare programs affects its state spending choices on programs to support low-income populations. The project includes a two-part study of state spending on social services. The first part uses existing data sources to build a multi-variate, fifty-state model to examine social welfare spending choices made by states at different points in time. In the second part of the study, additional information is gathered through site visits to a half-dozen of the poorest states to develop a more detailed analysis of the spending decisions relating to social welfare programs.