Targeting Social Benefits: International Perspectives and Trends

Targeting Social Benefits provides a systematic assessment of the trend toward targeting in seven countries representing a range of industrialized welfare states -- New Zealand, the Netherlands, Britain, Israel, the United States, Italy, and Sweden. The contributors to this volume examine the extent to which each country has adopted measures to focus social benefits on specific population groups and particularly social welfare program areas. A summary chapter surveys and categorizes the choices nations have made in targeting methods, culls the lessons learned for recent reforms, and explores the implications of these developments for the future of the welfare state. Specific methods for targeting benefits in different program areas are analyzed, including means-tests, income testing, diagnostic criteria, behavioral requirements, and the use of sociodemographic categories.