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Kelly, Paige - Dissertation (Final).pdf (1.57 MB)

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Status-Based Inequalities and Changes in the Welfare State:
An Empirical Study of U.S. County Governments

Kelly, Paige
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7823-8500
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618935727745921

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Environment and Natural Resources.
What accounts for the uneven distribution of poverty and inequality across community populations and social status groups? Demographers, sociologists, and other social scientists addressing why poverty and inequality vary so markedly across places largely focus on longstanding trends in employment structure, human capital, migration, and demographic composition. In my dissertation, I consider a relatively unexplored set of factors that I hypothesize affect poverty and inequality across communities: local government activities. Building on past research that has noted the increasing importance of local governments in shaping well-being across place, I explore whether these same factors relate to unequal likelihoods of experiencing poverty among social status groups (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, single-mothers) across U.S. counties. First, I consider how the need for social support across communities and among social status groups experiencing poverty account for differences in the scope of welfare services provided. I examine differences in the range of social welfare services county governments provide across approximately 1,700 U.S. counties to explore explanations. I find that both governments’ capacity as well as their “need response” varies in systematic ways across place. Additionally, I find that governments appear to provide a greater number of social welfare services in localities that have higher rates of white and single-mother poverty, while being generally non-responsive to Black, Hispanic, and foreign-born residents. Second, I address how local political actors influence communities’ economic development strategies. Past research on local economic development has largely focused on economic factors, such as economic competition, tax bases, and residential/business mobility. I examine whether local political actors, specifically growth-machine, business elites and/or civil society actors, influence the types of economic development strategies used and whether the influence of local political actors varies by development policy type across approximately 1,000 U.S. counties. I find that local political actors influence communities’ economic development strategies, but their influence varies in meaningful ways across policy types. For example, local business elites are generally related to a greater use of all types of development, while civil society has an influence on progressive and self-development strategies. Third, I explore how local governments’ capacity and spending influence racial inequality in poverty. I advance past work that has explored how local governments’ influence poverty and inequality across localities, by exploring how these same factors relate to racial inequality in poverty (e.g., poverty among white, Black, and Hispanic populations) across approximately 2,400 U.S. counties. I find that counties with higher capacity government and greater expenditures tend to reduce the likelihood of poverty among white residents, while having less influence or no effect on the likelihood of Black or Hispanic residents’ experiencing poverty. Taken together, these findings indicate the importance of considering local governments activities when accounting for poverty and inequality across places and among social status groups. Furthermore, this work highlights the importance of comparative research that utilizes a spatial inequality framework to explore both privileged and disadvantaged social status groups simultaneously. By accounting for the local conditions in which inequality and poverty are exacerbated or reduced, perpetuated or abated researchers can explore and highlight how a more just and equitable society, regardless of one’s community context or social statuses, is possible.
Linda Lobao, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Kerry Ard, Dr. (Committee Member)
Rachel Dwyer, Dr. (Committee Member)
189 p.
Sociology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kelly, P. (2021). Status-Based Inequalities and Changes in the Welfare State:
An Empirical Study of U.S. County Governments [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618935727745921

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kelly, Paige. Status-Based Inequalities and Changes in the Welfare State:
An Empirical Study of U.S. County Governments . 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618935727745921.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kelly, Paige. "Status-Based Inequalities and Changes in the Welfare State:
An Empirical Study of U.S. County Governments ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618935727745921

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1618935727745921
30
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.