These six essays on the debate over the need for welfare reform offer a wide perspective on poverty and inequality. The "Introduction" (Jon Neill) is followed by "Welfare Report--1996 Style: Will We Sacrifice the 'Safety Net'?" (Robert Haveman), a critique of two proposals that shaped the current debate over welfare reform. "Why Has Economic Growth Been Such an Ineffective Tool against Poverty in Recent Years?" (Rebecca M. Blank) analyzes the relationship between the incidence of poverty and economic growth; it identifies skill-biased technical progress and internationalization of the economy as the two major reasons for the failure of growth to reduce the poverty rate. "Regional Poverty and Inequality in the United States" (John P. Formby) shows that regional income distributions are becoming more similar due to decreased inequality in the South and increased inequality in the Northeast and West. "The International Evidence on Income Distribution in Modern Economics: Where Do We Stand?" (Timothy M. Smeeding) uses cross-country comparisons of income distributions to show that the United States has more inequality than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "From Parent to Child: Intergenerational Relations and Intrahousehold Allocations" (Jere R. Behrman) concludes that parents' economic status plays a large role in determining the child's income. "The Reality of Redistribution" (Gordon Tullock) supposes a negative relationship between economic growth and redistributive policies. Author and subject indexes are appended. (YLB)