What has Welfare Reform Accomplished?  Impacts on Welfare Participation, Employment, Income, Poverty, and Family Structure

Schoeni, Robert F.; Blank, Rebecca M.

doi:10.3386/w7627

Cited by 231 publications

(273 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This suggests that there may be a behavioral "demonstration" effect, as women hear that the state is going to "get tough" on welfare recipients. It is also consistent with the possibility that waivers are endogenously determined, however Schoeni and Blank (2000) indicate that there are few differences between waiver and nonwaiver states once economic differences are controlled for. 20 I do not view the coefficients estimated in column 3 as the most appropriate model, since the inclusion of such trends often overadjusts the data.…”

supporting

confidence: 77%

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What Causes Public Assistance Caseloads to Grow?

Blank

2001

The Journal of Human Resources

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This paper uses state panel data to investigate changes in public assistance caseloads through the end of the AFDC program in 1996, with particular attention to the rapid increase in caseloads between 1990 and 1994. Previous research has focussed on total caseloads, with attention to economic and policy variables, and does a relatively poor job of explaining this caseload increase. This paper utilizes a much richer set of control variables to investigate the causes of caseload change; it separates AFDC caseloads into three subcomponent programs, separately investigates changes within the AFDC-UP program, AFDC child-only cases, and the remaining "core" AFDC cases (with benefits paid to single mothers and their children); and it explores whether this caseload rise was driven by changes in take-up rates versus in eligibility. The results indicate a large unexplained rise in total AFDC caseloads, even with a very rich specification. A good share of this is due to sharp increases in child-only cases, driven by program and demographic shifts. To a lesser extent, this rise was caused by the expansion of AFDC-UP to all states. These two factors explain half of the overall rise, and all of the unexplained rise in AFDC caseloads. The remaining increase in "core" AFDC cases -with benefits paid to single mothers and their children --is well explained within the model, and is the result of economic, demographic, political and policy changes. These variables appear to have increased eligibility among the core AFDC population in the early 1990s during the economic slowdown. Take-up rates also increased during this time period, but not by a large amount.

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supporting

confidence: 77%

“…8 Their primary focus is on the extent to which economic and policy variables determine caseloads. Two recent studies try to investigate the role of policy changes on caseloads post 1996, and indicate that policy changes since the 1996 welfare reform have had a substantial effect on caseload decline (CEA, 1999;Schoeni and Blank, 2000).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Causes Public Assistance Caseloads to Grow?

Blank

2001

The Journal of Human Resources

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“…Schoeni and Blank (2000) find a small but significant effect of waivers on the probability that women with low levels of education are married. We believe this small potential bias would bias our results to a null finding.…”

mentioning

confidence: 77%

AFDC, SSI, and Welfare Reform Aggressiveness: Caseload Reductions versus Caseload Shifting

Schmidt¹,

Sevak²

2004

The Journal of Human Resources

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Welfare reform has made receipt of cash benefits more difficult and less attractive for single mothers. We examine whether reforms of AFDC affected caseloads of another programSupplemental Security Income (SSI). We exploit state variation in welfare reform over time, and find that female-headed households in states aggressively pursuing welfare reform were 21.6 percent more likely to receive SSI. This implies that a decrease in caseloads in one program cannot be interpreted as an equal-sized decrease in the number of families receiving public assistance. In addition, our results have policy implications for the well-being of families affected by welfare reform time limits. * We are grateful to

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“…A few recent observational studies focus on employment, income, poverty, and family structure (e.g., Bitler, Gelbach, and Hoynes 2003;Ellwood 2000;Grogger forthcoming;Moffitt 1999;Schoeni and Blank 1999). Consistent with the experimental evidence, these studies tend to conclude that welfare reform contributed to the rise in employment among low-income mothers (Grogger forthcoming;Meyer and Rosenbaum 2001;Moffitt 1999;O'Neill and Hill 2001;Schoeni and Blank 1999).…”

Section: Welfare Reform Evaluation Literaturementioning

confidence: 73%

Welfare Work Requirements and Child Well-Being: Evidence from the Effects on Breast-Feeding

Haider¹,

Jacknowitz²,

Schoeni³

2003

Demography

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Reardon, two anonymous referees, and the editor for helpful comments. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any of the sponsors or related agencies. ABSTRACTA central theme of welfare reform is recipients are required to engage in work activities. In many states these work requirements apply to mothers whose children are a few months old, potentially increasing the costs and decreasing the prevalence of breastfeeding. Given the substantial benefits of breastfeeding, any reduction represents an important negative consequence of these requirements. Our results suggest that, in the absence of welfare reform, the national breastfeeding rate six months after birth would have been 5.5% higher in 2000. Such negative consequences of these policies must be weighed against potential benefits as states refine their welfare programs.

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What has Welfare Reform Accomplished? Impacts on Welfare Participation, Employment, Income, Poverty, and Family Structure

Cited by 231 publications

References 8 publications

What Causes Public Assistance Caseloads to Grow?

What Causes Public Assistance Caseloads to Grow?

AFDC, SSI, and Welfare Reform Aggressiveness: Caseload Reductions versus Caseload Shifting

Welfare Work Requirements and Child Well-Being: Evidence from the Effects on Breast-Feeding

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