Optimal in-kind benefits in means-tested programs

我们调查福利津贴是否应该以实物或现金形式提供。虽然实物转移，如果设计良好，只能吸引其目标低收入受益人，这一论点是削弱了一个经济状况调查的福利计划，因为经济状况调查已经作为一种筛选工具。我们研究我们是否可以合理的实物利益时，经济状况调查已经到位？我们刻画了当社会计划者不观察个人的生产力时的最优分配，并基于个人的自我报告的生产力设计了一个分配方案。一个常见的解决方案是，报告生产率低的个人应该有他们的休闲提供过多，消费品提供不足。我们的研究在一个框架中扩展了这一发现，其中个人从几种消费品中获得效用，其中一些是在家里生产的，即，它们既需要时间，也需要从市场购买投入品。我们的研究结果表明，由于个人可以重新分配多余的闲暇时间，家庭生产活动，高和低生产力的个人价值的投入品家庭生产不同。这使得社会规划者能够改进其分配方案，以更好地针对低生产力的个人。我们正在进行的工作表明，这种分配的实施涉及经济状况调查和复杂的税收制度，特别是当有一个以上的家庭生产的消费品。我们发现，在某些情况下，复杂的税收制度可以在一定程度上通过使用实物福利来简化。

We investigate whether welfare benefits should be provided in-kind or in-cash. While an in-kind transfer, if well-designed, can be attractive only to its targeted low-income beneficiaries, this argument is weakened in a means-tested welfare program since means-testing already serves as a screening tool. We examine whether we can rationalize an in-kind benefit when means-testing is already in place?We characterize the optimal allocations when a social planner does not observe individuals’ productivity and designs an allocation scheme based on individual’s self-report productivity. A common solution is that individuals reporting low productivity should have their leisure over-provided and consumption goods under-provided. Our study extends this finding in a framework where individuals derive utility from several consumption goods, some of which are produced at home, i.e., they require both time and input goods purchased from markets. Our results show that since individuals can reallocate the over-provided leisure time to home production activities, high and low productive individuals value input goods for home production differently. This allows the social planner to refine its allocation scheme to better target low productive individuals.Our on-going work shows that the implementation of this allocation involves mean-testing and a complex tax system, especially when there are more than one home-produced consumption goods. We find that in some cases the complex tax system can be, to a certain extent, simplified by using an in-kind benefit.