Targeting with In-kind Transfers: Evidence from Medicaid Home Care / Ethan M.J. Lieber, Lee M. Lockwood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lieber, Ethan M.J.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lockwood, Lee M.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24267.

NBER working paper series no. w24267

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Targeting with In-kind Transfers

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

Making a transfer in kind reduces its value to recipients but can improve targeting. We develop an approach to quantifying this tradeoff and apply it to home care. Using randomized experiments by Medicaid, we find that in-kind provision significantly reduces the value of the transfer to recipients while targeting a small fraction of the eligible population that is sicker and has fewer informal caregivers than the average eligible. Under a wide range of assumptions within a standard model, the targeting benefit exceeds the distortion cost. This highlights an important cost of recent reforms toward more flexible benefits.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2018.