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Teen Motherhood, Labor Market Involvement and the Receipt of Public Assistance

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  • Phillip B. Levine
  • Diane M. Whitmore

Abstract

The difficulties experienced by young women who give birth as teenagers have been well-documented and impose a significant cost to these women and to society (Maynard, 1997). For instance, teen mothers are far less likely to work compared to other women who delay child-bearing, leading to lower earnings for the family and reduced national output for society. Their lower earnings places the family at far greater risk of falling into poverty and increases expenditures on public assistance made to provide the family with a minimal living standard. These and other costs of teen childbearing have led to the proposal of several policy alternatives designed to alleviate them. In the late 1980s, three policies were implemented in experimental forms designed to allow researchers to evaluate their effectiveness along a multitude of dimensions. The three demonstrations were Ohio's Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) program, the New Chance Demonstration (NCD), and the Teenage Parent Demonstration (TPD). LEAP provided financial incentives to teen mothers in the treatment group designed to increase school enrollment/attendance that, it was hoped, would subsequently increase labor market participation and reduce welfare receipt. The NCD offered voluntary employment and training services to teenage mothers. The treatment in TPD was mandatory and included child-care and transportation assistance along with sanctions for failure to participate. This paper will synthesize the evidence from the existing academic literature regarding the effects of teen childbearing and the results of these three experiments, paying particular attention to labor market involvement and public assistance receipt in the years following birth for those women who had children as teens. The academic literature has attempted to determine whether teen motherhood itself "causes" the outcomes that follow, or whether the characteristics of those women who give birth as teens are such that they would have experienced subsequent difficulties even in the absence of the birth. Recent research suggests that perhaps little, if any, of the inferior outcomes that are associated with teen motherhood may be directly attributable to giving birth as a teen. The experimental findings, which show policies directed at improving outcomes for teen mothers are only modestly effective at best, seem to coincide with this view. The paper will first present a review of the academic literature, proceed to describe and highlight the findings of the three demonstration projects, then discuss the relationship between the two sets of results. We conclude with the implications for policy and future research. * Prepared for the conference: Synthesizing the Results of Demonstration Programs for Teen Mothers November 1997

Suggested Citation

  • Phillip B. Levine & Diane M. Whitmore, 1999. "Teen Motherhood, Labor Market Involvement and the Receipt of Public Assistance," JCPR Working Papers 84, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:wop:jopovw:84
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Arline Geronimus & Sanders Korenman, 1993. "The socioeconomic costs of teenage childbearing: Evidence and interpretation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 30(2), pages 281-290, May.
    2. Saul Hoffman & E. Foster & Frank Furstenberg, 1993. "Reevaluating the costs of teenage childbearing: Response to Geronimus and Korenman," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 30(2), pages 291-296, May.
    3. Rebecca M. Blank, 2001. "What Causes Public Assistance Caseloads to Grow?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(1), pages 85-118.
    4. Rebecca Maynard & Walter Nicholson & Anu Rangarajan, 1993. "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: The Effectiveness of Mandatory Services for Welfare-Dependent Teenage Parents," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 1435eded1614428a97a86afdf, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Bronars, Stephen G & Grogger, Jeff, 1994. "The Economic Consequences of Unwed Motherhood: Using Twin Births as a Natural Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1141-1156, December.
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