Effects of government policies on income distribution and welfare. Unpublished paper

Only some federal and state transfer, tax, and insurance policies have a substantial positive effect on income distribution and welfare. These effects are qualitatively the same regardless of the inequality measure used: Gini, standard deviation of logarithms, relative mean deviation, coefficient of variation, and various Atkinson indexes. Taxes and the Earned Income Tax Credit are an effective way to redistribute income to the poor and increase income equality. Social insurance programs have little effect except for Supplemental Security Income, which increases equality. The minimum wage and transfer programs (AFDC/TANF and food stamps) either have no statistically significant effect or negative distributional impacts