ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses Welfare payments with the exception of social-security insurance benefits. Welfare payments are determined either by formulae given in the law or, within wide limits, at the discretion of a government official. In most of the countries with established social security systems, the following welfare payments are of the formula type: old age and survivors insurance benefits; unemployment compensation; family allowances; resource-conditioned benefits; and maternity grants. Subsidies to housing are designed to increase the consumption of housing by certain groups of consumers, notably, low-income households or veterans, rather than to increase the rate of factor rewards in the building industry or in the real estate sector. Agricultural subsidies increase rates of reward to agricultural factors; food subsidies reduce food prices to consumers, particularly to low-income consumers. Food subsidies, contrasted with agricultural subsidies, are designed to reduce food prices to consumers rather than increase factor rewards to purchasers.
