The Impact of AFDC on Illegitimate Birth Rates

Janowitz, B

doi:10.2307/350417

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Most previous studies find significant effects of the basic AFDC guarantee level for whites (Freshcock & Cutright 1979;Plotnick 1990;Lundberg & Plotnick 1990Murray 1993;Acs 1993) 15 We also find a significant effect for whites in models that do not control for state fixed effects, but the effect becomes insignificant when state fixed effects are introduced. 16 For blacks and Hispanics, most previous studies do not find significant effects, but a number of studies do (Janowitz 1976;Winegarden 1988;Murray 1993;17 Schultz 1994).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Cutright only used twenty state observations, while Winegarden used fifty-one. However, studies by Janowitz (1976) and Southwick (1978) also used small samples (seventy-one SMSA and thirtyone state observations, respectively) and found that AFDC benefits have a significant effect on the percentage of AFDC families with illegitimate children. Unfortunately, one cannot draw any conclusions from these two studies because Janowitz found a positive effect and Southwick found a negative effect.…”

Section: Past Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Welfare benefits and birth decisions of never-married women

Robins

Fronstin

1996

Popul Res Policy Rev

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For some time now, the out-of-wedlock birthrate has been increasing rapidly in the United States. This has prompted several states to propose (and in some cases, enact) legislation to deny access to higher AFDC benefits for families in which the mother gives birth while receiving AFDC. The authors investigate whether AFDC benefit levels are systematically related to the family-size decisions of never-married women. Using a bivariate probit model with state and time fixed effects, applied to Current Population Survey data for the years 1980-1988, it is found that the basic benefit level for a family of two (one adult and one child) and the incremental benefit for a second child positively affects the family size decisions of black and Hispanic women, but not of white women. The effects are concentrated among high school dropouts (no effects are found for high school graduates). The authors conclude that rather than to uniformly deny benefits to all AFDC women that bear children, a better targeted policy might be to alter the AFDC benefit structure in such a way as to encourage single mothers to complete high school. However, being a high school dropout might be a proxy for some other underlying characteristic of the woman, and encouraging women to complete high school who otherwise would not might have no effect whatsoever on nonmarital births.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Past Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare benefits and birth decisions of never-married women

Robins

Fronstin

1996

Popul Res Policy Rev

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“…%tudies from the past 15 years include other results reported in Moore and Caldwell (1977), as well as Janowitz (1976), White (1977), and Field (1981).…”

Section: Appendix T a B L E Continued Note: No S T A N D A R D D E mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of studies using aggregate data on state or SMSA birthrates out of wedlock have also examined welfare effect^.^ With the exception of Janowitz (1976), none finds evidence of a positive association between more liberal welfare policies and premarital births.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare and Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing: Evidence from the 1980s

Plotnick¹

1990

Journal of Marriage and the Family

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“…Cain [2] has analyzed the likely effects of income maintenance on fertility. Janowitz [6] and Moore and Caldwell [11 have examined out-ofwedlock child-bearing.…”

Section: Alternative Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Income Maintenance Alternatives and Family: An Analysis of Price Effects

Bradbury¹

1978

The Journal of Human Resources

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The Impact of AFDC on Illegitimate Birth Rates

Cited by 23 publications

References 4 publications

Welfare benefits and birth decisions of never-married women

Welfare benefits and birth decisions of never-married women

Welfare and Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing: Evidence from the 1980s

Income Maintenance Alternatives and Family: An Analysis of Price Effects

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