How Family Caps Work: Evidence from a National Study

Camasso, Michael J.; Jagannathan, Radha

doi:10.1086/648190

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…A large body of research on the relationships among welfare policies, marriage, and fertility behaviors produce mixed and inconclusive results on this point (Acs 1996; Grogger and Bronars 2001; Hu 2003; Bitler et al 2004; Joyce et al 2004; Ryan, Manlove, and Hofferth 2006). Notably, even family cap policies designed specifically to decrease fertility among single mothers are found to have no consistent effect on these behaviors (Grogger and Bronars 2001; Jagannathan, Camasso, and Killingsworth 2004 a , 2004 b ; Ryan et al 2006; Camasso and Jagannathan 2009). As a direct test of this identifying assumption, the author estimates models that predict the probability of single motherhood as a function of the length of the exemption policy in a given state (analyses not shown here).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare as Maternity Leave? Exemptions from Welfare Work Requirements and Maternal Employment

Hill

2012

Social Service Review

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In some states, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program offers the equivalent of paid maternity leave without job protection to low-income, single mothers of infants. Age-of-youngest-child (AYC) exemptions waive work requirements for TANF recipients after the birth of a child, generally for 3–12 months, depending on the state. This study uses data from the Current Population Survey (1998–2008) to examine whether the availability and length of AYC exemptions are predictive of rates of employment, work, and full-time work among low-educated single mothers with infants. The analysis uses the difference-in-differences (DD) technique, a comparison of outcomes under different policy treatments and between treatment and comparison groups. The results suggest that AYC exemptions are not related to employment or work rates but that living in a state with no AYC exemption is strongly and positively associated with rates of full-time work among low-educated mothers with infants.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare as Maternity Leave? Exemptions from Welfare Work Requirements and Maternal Employment

Hill

2012

Social Service Review

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“…This emphasis on the reproductive behaviors of poor people continued to influence the debates over federal welfare reform in the mid-1990s, and family cap policies continue to be in in force in about half of the states (Romero & Fuentes, 2010). This is so despite evidence that questions the effectiveness of family cap policies and the supposed connection between aid receipt and reproduction underlying them (Camaso & Jagannathan, 2009;Smith, 2006), as well as evidence from cross-national comparison which cast doubt on the validity of the Malthusian hypothesis. Data collected over the last 15 years by the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2015) show that countries with more generous social welfare systems such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway have lower birth rates than the United States.…”

Section: Implications For Current Policy Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Townsend and Malthus to the Poor Law Report: An Examination of the Influence of Ideas Concerning the Relationship of Public Aid and Reproduction on Policy Development, 1786-1834

Tomczak¹

2015

JSSW

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Current welfare policies denying additional benefits to women who have children while on assistance are premised on the idea that the giving of aid causes reproduction, an idea that has its origins in earlier debates over aid policy. This paper examines ideas concerning the relationship of public aid policy to reproduction by its recipients in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England, and the influence of these ideas on the poor law policy of the period. The thoughts of leading theorists on this relationship, such as early political economists Joseph Townsend and Thomas Robert Malthus, are analyzed. This examination shows that these theorists asserted that the giving of aid led to reproduction by its recipients. Further analysis of proposed and enacted policies, particularly the Poor Law Reform of 1834, shows that these ideas asserting a relationship between poor relief and reproduction appear to have influenced policy in this era.

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“…For example, scholars have linked higher levels of welfare benefits to abortion rates in the states, with mixed results (Blank, George, and London, ; Matthews, Ribar, and Wilhem, ; Medoff, ; Ohsfelt and Gohmann, ). Other scholars have explored the influence of welfare family caps—limitations on welfare benefits based on the number of children one has—with similarly mixed results (Camasso and Jagannathan, ; Sabia, ).…”

Section: Child Support and Abortion In The Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%