The Use of Population Projections to Allocate Public Funds

Norfleet W. Rives

Expert InsightsPublished 1981

Reviews recent efforts to standardize state population projections for federal assistance. Such efforts reflect concern for equitable and efficient funding of long-range capital projects. Potentially troublesome issues in federal-state-local relations are identified: (1) Who decides the assumptions to underlie baseline projections? (2) How often should a projection be updated? (3) Would updating affect previous funding commitments? (4) Will required use of one projection for all federal funding purposes prove too inflexible? (5) Will availability of an "official" projection series lead to certain unwarranted uses? (6) Who will resolve disputes? (7) To what extent does use of population projections to allocate public funds constitute an ad hoc growth policy?

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1981
  • Pages: 17
  • Document Number: P-6584

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Rives, Norfleet W., The Use of Population Projections to Allocate Public Funds. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1981. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6584.html.
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