How Johnson Fought the War on Poverty: The Economics and Politics of Funding at the Office of Economic Opportunity

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the geographic distribution of spending through the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act (EOA). Using newly assembled state- and county-level data, the results show that the Johnson administration directed funding in ways consistent with the War on Poverty...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NBER Working Paper Series 2014-01, p.19860
Main Authors: Bailey, Martha J, Duquette, Nicolas J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archives & records
Economic conditions
Economic models
Economic opportunities
Economic statistics
Economic theory
Economics
Expenditures
Funding
Grants
Legislation
Local government
New Deal
Nonprofit organizations
Paternalism
Political behavior
Political economy
Politics
Poverty
Studies
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Description
Summary:This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the geographic distribution of spending through the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act (EOA). Using newly assembled state- and county-level data, the results show that the Johnson administration directed funding in ways consistent with the War on Poverty's rhetoric of fighting poverty and racial discrimination: poorer areas and those with a greater share of nonwhite residents received systematically more funding. In contrast to New Deal spending, political variables explain very little of the variation in EOA funding. The smaller role of politics may help explain the strong backlash against the War on Poverty's programs.
ISSN:0898-2937
DOI:10.3386/w19860