Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Analyses of intergovernmental aid emphasize the difference between matching grants and block grants. Since a block grant has only an income effect and no price effect, conventional theory predicts that block grants have a very small impact on the local government's expenditure on the favored activity. There is, however, a different type of block grant referred to in this paper as a "differential add-on grant." The purpose of the present paper is to measure the effectiveness of one such add-on grant, the federal government's program to increase local education spending on pupils from low-income families. The evidence implies that this aid is quite effective and therefore suggests that the traditional theory of intergovernmental aid should be extended to recognize this type of grant.