Implementation Of Welfare Reform Research Articles

The Importance of Relationships: Interviews with Welfare Clients After Welfare Reform

The Importance of Relationships: Interviews with Welfare Clients After Welfare Reform

Effects of Welfare Reform on Positive Health and Social Behaviors of Adolescents.

This paper explores a missing link in the literature on welfare reform in the U.S.-the effects on positive health and social behaviors of adolescents, who represent the next generation of potential welfare recipients. Previous research on welfare reform and adolescents has focused almost exclusively on negative behaviors and found that welfare reform led to decreases in high school dropout and teenage fertility among girls, but increases in delinquent behaviors and substance use, particularly among boys. Using nationally representative data on American high school students in 1991-2006 and a quasi-experimental research design, we estimated the effects of welfare reform implementation on eating breakfast, regular fruit/vegetable consumption, regular exercise, adequate sleep, time spent on homework, completion of assignments, participation in community activities or volunteering, participation in school athletics, participation in other school activities, and religious service attendance. We found no robust evidence that welfare reform affected any of these adolescent behaviors. In concert with the past research on welfare reform in the U.S. and adolescents, the findings do not support the implicit assumption underlying welfare reform that strong maternal work incentives would increase responsible behavior in the next generation and suggest that welfare reform had overall adverse effects on boys, who have been falling behind girls in terms of high school completion for decades.

Effects of Welfare Reform on Parenting

This study investigated the effects of welfare reform in the 1990s, which represented a major policy shift that substantially and permanently retracted cash assistance to poor mothers in the U.S., on parenting. Using data on women from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth linked with information on their 10- to 14-year-old children from the Child Self-Administered and Self-Report surveys, we exploited variation in the implementation of welfare reform across states, over time, and across treatment and comparison groups to estimate the effects of welfare reform on parent-child activities and closeness of the mother-child relationship. We found that welfare reform had adverse effects on engagement in parent-child activities, children feeling close to their mothers, and mothers knowing their children’s whereabouts, with the effects generally concentrated among boys. These findings have implications for children’s development and contribute to a virtually non-existent literature on the effects of welfare reform on parenting and the small but growing economic literature on parenting. We found no evidence that the effects of welfare reform on parenting operated through the mother working more than full time, having multiple jobs, working in a service job, or having a non-standard work schedule.

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Adolescent Social Behaviors

This study investigates the effects of welfare reform in the U.S. in the 1990s, which dramatically limited cash assistance for low-income families, on the next generation as they transition to adulthood. We estimate effects by gender and focus on behaviors that are important for socioeconomic and health trajectories and represent early observable consequences of the reforms for the next generation. Using two nationally-representative datasets, we exploit differences in welfare reform implementation across states and over time in a difference-in- difference-in-differences framework to identify plausibly causal effects of welfare reform on a range of prosocial and antisocial behaviors (volunteering, participating in clubs/teams/activities, skipping school, getting into fights, damaging property, stealing, hurting others, smoking, using alcohol, using marijuana, using other illicit drugs). We explore maternal employment, supervision, and child’s employment when not in school as potential mediators. We find that: (1) Welfare reform had no favorable effects on any of the youth behaviors examined. (2) Welfare reform led to a decrease in volunteering among girls. (3) Welfare reform led to increases in skipping school, damaging property, and getting into fights among boys. (4) Welfare reform led to increases in smoking and drug use among both boys and girls, with generally larger effects for boys (e.g., approximately 6% for boys compared to 4% for girls for any substance use). (5) The mediators we are able to consider explain little of the observed effects of welfare reform. Overall, the results from this study suggest that the intergenerational effects of welfare reform on adolescent behaviors were unfavorable, particularly for boys, and do not support longstanding arguments that incentivizing maternal employment by limiting cash assistance leads to responsible behavior in the next generation. As such, the social gains of welfare reform for women found in previous studies may have come at a cost to the next generation, particularly to boys who have been falling behind girls in terms of high school completion for decades.

Reprint of: Effects of maternal work incentives on youth crime

This study exploits differences in the implementation of welfare reform in the United States across states and over time to identify causal effects of maternal work incentives, and by inference employment, on youth arrests between 1988 and 2005, the period of time during which welfare reform unfolded. We consider both serious and minor crimes as classified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, consider differential effects by the youth's gender and age, investigate the extent to which effects were stronger in states with more stringent work incentive policies and larger welfare caseload declines, and use a number of different model specifications to assess robustness and patterns. We find that welfare reform led to reduced arrests for minor crimes among youth ages 15–17 years by 9–11%, with similar estimates for males and females, but that it did not affect youth arrests for serious crimes. The results from this study add to a scant knowledge base about the effects of maternal employment on adolescent behavior by exploiting a large-scale social experiment that greatly increased employment of low-skilled women. The results also provide some support for the widely-embraced argument that welfare restrictions discourage undesirable social behavior, not only of mothers, but also of the next generation.

Effects of maternal work incentives on youth crime

This study exploits differences in the implementation of welfare reform in the United States across states and over time to identify causal effects of maternal work incentives, and by inference employment, on youth arrests between 1988 and 2005, the period of time during which welfare reform unfolded. We consider both serious and minor crimes as classified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, consider differential effects by the youth's gender and age, investigate the extent to which effects were stronger in states with more stringent work incentive policies and larger welfare caseload declines, and use a number of different model specifications to assess robustness and patterns. We find that welfare reform led to reduced arrests for minor crimes among youth ages 15–17 years by 9–11%, with similar estimates for males and females, but that it did not affect youth arrests for serious crimes. The results from this study add to a scant knowledge base about the effects of maternal employment on adolescent behavior by exploiting a large-scale social experiment that greatly increased employment of low-skilled women. The results also provide some support for the widely-embraced argument that welfare restrictions discourage undesirable social behavior, not only of mothers, but also of the next generation.

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Teen Drug Arrests.

This study exploits differences in the implementation of welfare reform across states and over time in the United States in the attempt to identify causal effects of welfare reform on youth arrests for drug-related crimes between 1990 and 2005, the period during which welfare reform unfolded. Using monthly arrest data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, we estimate the effects of welfare reform implementation on drug-related arrests among 15-17 year olds in the United States between 1990 and 2005. We use a difference-in-differences (DD) approach that exploits the implementation of welfare reform across states and over time to estimate effects for teens exposed to welfare reform. The findings, based on numerous different model specifications, suggest that welfare reform had no statistically significant effect on teen drug arrests. Most estimates were positive and suggestive of a small (3%) increase in arrests. This study investigated the effects of a broad-based policy change that altered maternal employment, family income, and other family characteristics on youth drug arrests.

The Effect of Fragmentation and Second-Order Devolution on Efficacy of Local Public Welfare Policy

Following implementation of welfare reform in 1997, twenty states devolved public welfare functions to local governments. Yet, little consensus exists about how effective local public welfare expenditures are at reducing local poverty: local governments can offer policies more responsive to local needs, but may also face a welfare migration effect. I argue that the effectiveness of local public welfare policy at poverty reduction is a function of interjurisdictional and intergovernmental arrangements. Analyzing data from the 1997 to 2007 Census of Governments, I find that the magnitude of the marginal effect of local public welfare expenditures on poverty is smaller in jurisdictionally fragmented regions than in consolidated regions. In addition, the magnitude of the marginal effect of local public welfare spending is greater following implementation of welfare reform in states that devolved authority to the local level than in states that did not.

Pseudo-hypoglycémie : penser à la macroglobuline

Welfare reform and related changes have the potential to significantly affect states' financing of child welfare services both directly and indirectly. While the actual effects of these changes are not yet known, there have been no baseline data on states financing practices upon which to measure change. This article seeks to fill this data gap, reporting the results of a survey that collected information from state child welfare administrators on the amount states spend on child welfare services, the sources of these funds, and the amount expended on different types of services. Total spending in State Fiscal Year 1996 exceeded $14.4 billion. The majority of both federal and state child welfare funds supported children in out-of-home care. States relied heavily on federal Medicaid, Emergency Assistance, and Social Services Block Grant funds to pay for child welfare services though states were found to vary significantly in their financing practices. Implications of these findings for welfare reform implementation are discussed.

Was it the economy or reform that precipitated the steep decline in the US welfare caseload?

Objectives of the 1996 overhaul of the US welfare system included reducing dependency, raising employment and de-incentivizing out-of-wedlock fertility. Using public use state-level panel data from 1990 to 2005, I analyse how state implementation of welfare reform simultaneously affects the caseload, employment and out-of-wedlock births (henceforth, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) objectives). Because endogeneity and simultaneity could not be rejected, I use Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS) method. Results indicated that most of the steep decline in the caseload is attributed to welfare reform, while the economy's overall effect paled in comparison. However, lagged and contemporaneous unemployment individually ranked second and third behind the Hispanic share of state population. The conservative tilt over the period studied ranked forth, followed in declining order by full family sanctions, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) payments, time limits (lagged by length), access to abortion clinics, lump-sum TANF diversion payments, and TANF benefit payments. Findings also suggest that policy does not always work as intended: caseloads are found to be higher in states that have highly regarded family formation and job retention TANF programs; and EITC payments are associated with lower not higher caseloads. The most compelling finding in this study is that low-income families likely turn first to unemployment insurance and then to TANF assistance.

Stretched Thin: Poor Families, Welfare Work, and Welfare Reform. By Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, and Jill Weigt. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. Pp. 256. $59.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper).

<i>Stretched Thin: Poor Families, Welfare Work, and Welfare Reform</i>. By Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, and Jill Weigt. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. Pp. 256. $59.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper).

The State of the Safety Net in the Post-Welfare Reform Era

The passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill led to sweeping changes to the central U.S. cash safety net program for families with children. Importantly, along with other changes, the reform imposed lifetime time limits for receipt of welfare de facto ending the entitlement nature of cash welfare for poor families with children in the United States. Despite dire predictions about poverty and deprivation, the previous research shows that caseloads declined and employment increased, with no detectible increase in poverty or worsening of child-well-being. We re-evaluate these results in light of the severe recession which began in December 2007. In particular, we examine how the cyclicality of the response of program caseloads and family well-being has been altered by the implementation of welfare reform. We find that use of food stamps and non-cash safety net program participation have become significantly more responsive across economic cycles after welfare reform, going up more after reform when unemployment increases. By contrast, there is no evidence that cash welfare for families with children is more responsive after reform, and some evidence that it might be less so. There is some evidence that poverty increases more with the unemployment rate after reform (and no evidence that poverty increases less with unemployment after reform). We find that reform has led to no significant effects on the cyclical responsiveness of food consumption, food insecurity, health insurance, household crowding, or health.

Organizational Responses to Social Policy: The Case of Welfare Reform

I argue that worker-client relations and their consequences are the actual manifestation of people changing policies. A theoretical framework is presented to explain the path from the policy to its outcomes, which includes the policy design, the institutional and political economy of the local community in which the policy is implemented, the strategic choices made by the organization, the responses and adaptations of the workers, and the resulting worker-client relations and their consequences. The framework is applied to the implementation of welfare reform, demonstrating why there is an inherent disjuncture between the policy design and the actual organizational practices.

Payment by results threatens implementation of welfare reform

Payment by results threatens implementation of welfare reform

When Welfare Worked: A Community Approach to Welfare Reform

This article examines the implementation of welfare reform in Oregon from 1995–2001 and argues that the state of Oregon provided a model for comprehensive reform with a community approach to welfare provision. Utilizing the flexibility and resources made available under the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Oregon launched an aggressive campaign to enlist community partners in moving welfare recipients into employment. The results were collaborative partnerships that achieved real resource sharing and staff integration through a commitment to consensus building among multiple stakeholders that gave meaning to the ideal of democratic policymaking. The benefits of such an approach to welfare recipients were evident in the range of services provided as well as reduced caseloads and high employment levels without the punitive threat of time limits. After 2001, however, the state fiscal crisis coupled with federal reauthorization proposals designed to restrict state flexibility threatened gains in community building.

Social capital and welfare reform: organizations, congregations, and communities

Acknowledgments1. IntroductionPart I. Factors Influencing Implementation of Welfare Reform 2. The Federal and State Policy Context for Welfare Reform3. Local Government Systems4. Social Service Organizations5. Social Service Systems6. Labor Markets and Individual Career Paths7. Family Survival Strategies and Social Capital8. Comparisons Among Worker TypesPart II. Social Capital and Community Context 9. Social Service Agency Use and Social Capital10. Agencies and Social Capital11. Faith Communities and Social Capital12. Faith, Works, and Community: Connections Among Nonprofits, Government, and Congregations13. Advocacy and Social Capital14. Conclusion: Public Policy and Social CapitalAppendix A. Methods and Project DescriptionsAppendix B. OrganizationsAppendix C. Family Types and People Profiled in the BookNotesReferencesIndex

Evaluating the Effects of a Mandatory Government Program using Matched Groups within a Similar Geographic Location

Program evaluators have recently turned their attention to matching methods in their search for a solution to the evaluation problem. Three nearest neighbour matching estimators are considered in this paper and compared with experimental benchmark results, following the literature initiated by Lalonde (1986). The first estimator is based on propensity score nearest neighbour matching and estimates the propensity score using a logit model. The second estimator estimates the propensity score using boosted regression, a non-parametric approach borrowed from the machine learning literature which can automatically model non-linearities between covariates and the propensity score. The third estimator is a covariate matching estimator using a distance metric suggested by Abadie and Imbens (2004, 2006). In addition, taking advantage of a statewide implementation of welfare reform, in-state comparison groups of varying sizes are created to determine the importance of the unweighted treatment to comparison group ratio in matching with replacement, and the importance of adjusting for aggregate geographic differences using county level data. Overall, no estimator was found to be dominant and regression adjustment using county level variables produced mixed results. However, one clear finding is that having a smaller treatment to comparison group ratio after matching and a larger overall sample size can help one's chances of obtaining unbiased matching estimates.

Changing Patterns of Addiction and Public Aid Receipt: Tracking the Unintended Consequences of Welfare Reform

Sharp declines in welfare rolls since the passage of welfare reform legislation have led many to label it a social policy success. Using data from prereform and postreform samples of welfare applicants and recipients, as well as ethnographic data on welfare reform implementation, we examine three hypotheses based on concerns raised during the welfare reform debate about the possible effects of new policies on substance abusers and addicts: First, they would be "scared off," or discouraged from applying to aid by welfare's new requirements surrounding work and treatment. Second, they might be "weeded out," or face discrimination in the application process because of concerns about the difficulty of moving them successfully from welfare to work. Third, they might be "bumped down," or shifted to local aid programs rather than moving from welfare to self-sufficiency. Our empirical analysis finds no evidence of scaring off or weeding out, and some evidence of bumping down. Using ethnographic data, we offer some possible explanations for these findings by placing them in the context of policy change and implementation in the years following welfare reform.

State Poverty Rates: Do the New Welfare Policies Make a Difference?

AbstractThis article uses four models to identify the best predictors of state poverty levels and changes in state poverty rates since the implementation of welfare reform. The policy decisions based on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) by the states are tested along with more traditional variables identified in the literature. Using several measures of state poverty, the analysis finds that those states with the lowest poverty rates are those with the healthiest economies, and the most generous state spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). States with the highest percentage of their TANF rolls made up of black citizens tend to have the highest rates of poverty. Initial poverty rates are found to be important in that states with higher initial poverty levels are capable of generating a larger reduction in poverty than states with lower initial rates. With the exception of limited evidence on sanctions, none of the PRWORA–based policies were found to have any effect on poverty rates.

Assessing the Effect of Welfare Reforms on Public Assistance Caseloads in Four Ohio Counties

Abstract The implementation of welfare reform at the local level is critical to assessing the effects of structural reforms initiated since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996. Wide variations in the activities undertaken in response to national welfare reform have hindered efforts to understand the factors that have contributed to the success of welfare reform apparent in caseload reductions. This paper reviews Community Human Service Plans in four Ohio counties and examines their trends in caseloads. Two strategies emerge: “job attachment” and “human capital development.” These differences in local implementation can be related to caseload trends.