Leaving Welfare: Employment and Well-Being of Families that Left Welfare in the Post-Entitlement Era

Acs, Gregory; Loprest, Pamela

doi:10.17848/9781417550012

Cited by 64 publications

(46 citation statements)

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“…Few studies have examined its impacts on another type of hardship: housing instability. Housing instability, which includes missing rent or mortgage payments, doubling-up or overcrowding, moving more than once per year, having been evicted, or being homeless, is highly prevalent among low-income households, households experiencing economic hardship, and those who receive public assistance (Acs and Loprest 2004;Burgard et al 2012;Phinney et al 2007;Van Order and Zorn 2002;Wood and Rangarajan 2005). Housing instability has an association with several negative long-term outcomes in adults including poor physical and mental health (Burgard et al 2012;Park et al 2011;Ross and Squires 2011;Suglia et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food insecurity and housing instability in vulnerable families

King

2016

Rev Econ Household

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Reducing the prevalence of household food insecurity has been a long-standing objective of the federal government. Previous research has found many negative consequences of food insecurity for families and households but has not examined its relationship with housing instability. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, difference-in-difference models show that food insecurity is associated with housing instability. The association remains statistically significant after accounting for potential selection and unobserved heterogeneity using propensity score matching and excluding households that experienced prior housing instability from the sample. Examining potential mediating factors, I find that material hardship explains about half of this association. These findings suggest that maintaining a strong social safety net would reduce the risk that families experience material hardship and housing instability, which may also reduce the risk of homelessness.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food insecurity and housing instability in vulnerable families

King

2016

Rev Econ Household

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“…About 60% of leavers do work, and their earnings combined with cash and nearcash transfers and tax credits are higher than they would have been if still relying on welfare. Nevertheless the bulk of these leavers (85%) still have incomes below twice the federal poverty line (Acs and Loprest, 2004). The final group, families that would have entered welfare under AFDC rules but have been formally or informally diverted from welfare since reform, is particularly hard to capture.…”

Section: Effects On Income Of Low-income Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should we subsidize work? Welfare reform, the earned income tax credit and optimal transfers

Acs

2006

Int Tax Public Finance

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During the 1990s, US income transfer and tax policies shifted towards trying to encourage work among low-income families. Optimal tax theory, however, suggests that work subsidies are usually an inefficient way to raise the incomes of poor families unless the work effort of recipients has external benefits and/or tax payer/voters prefer redistributing income to the working poor rather than the idle poor. This paper discusses the conditions under which work subsidies may be economically efficient and assesses empirical evidence that suggests that welfare reform and expansions of the EITC have increased work effort among low income families, but is inconclusive about whether the policy shift has enabled them to advance beyond entry-level jobs or benefited their children. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Optimal taxes and transfers, Earned income tax credit, Welfare reform, External benefits,

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“…Studies of welfare leavers indicate that working leavers are, for better or worse, entrenched in the low-wage labor market. On average, employed leavers work full time and their median earnings are comfortably above the minimum wage (Acs and Loprest 2004). Access to employersponsored benefits varies across locations and studies, but even during the 1990s, fewer than half of all working leavers had health insurance coverage from their employers or paid sick leave.…”

Section: Status and Trends Among Welfare Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While debate continues over the level of federal child care funding, relatively low percentages of working welfare leavers reported using child care subsidies. At the same time, unemployed leavers frequently cited child care as a reason for why they are not working (Acs and Loprest 2004).…”

Section: Status and Trends Among Welfare Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%