The Confluence of Sociology, Statistics, and Public Policy in the Quality Control of the Food Stamps, Afdc, and Medicaid Family Assistance Programs

In: Evaluation review: a journal of applied social research, Band 15, Heft 3, S. 315-332

Abstract

This article shows how and why interactions among sociological, statistical, and public policy issues fuel the current debate about the quality control systems of three family assistance programs: Food Stamps, AFDC (Aid to Families With Dependent Children), and Medicaid. These interactions will be seen to be driven by social policies that in turn will impinge on issues of estimation, measurement error, detection of outliers, and the implied cost share sanctioning of states by the federal government. The authors' conclusions are related to, and extend, the results of a National Academy of Sciences study of methods for improving the current quality control systems.