IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v17y2025i1p369-401.html

Changes in Family Structure and Welfare Participation since the 1960s: The Role of Legal Services

Author

Listed:
  • Jamein Cunningham
  • Andrew Goodman-Bacon

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effects of the War on Poverty's legal services program (LSP), which provided subsidized legal assistance to poor communities, focusing on divorce and welfare access. We use a difference-in-difference (DiD) research design based on the program's rollout from 1965 to 1975. We find temporary increases in the rate of new divorces and persistent increases in welfare participation, consistent with LSP activities. We find increases in nonmarital birth rates that stem from falling marriage rates rather than rising birth rates. Expanded access to legal institutions thus contributed directly and indirectly to changes in family structure in the 1960s.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamein Cunningham & Andrew Goodman-Bacon, 2025. "Changes in Family Structure and Welfare Participation since the 1960s: The Role of Legal Services," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 369-401, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:369-401
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210117
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E177084V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210117.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210117.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20210117?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Patrick Bennett & Richard Blundell & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2020. "A second chance? Labor market returns to adult education using school reforms," IFS Working Papers W20/28, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Bennett, Patrick & Blundell, Richard & Salvanes, Kjell Gunnar, 2020. "A Second Chance? Labor Market Returns to Adult Education Using School Reforms," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 14/2020, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    3. Cavgias, Alexsandros & Bruce, Raphael & Meloni, Luis, 2023. "Policy enforcement in the presence of organized crime: Evidence from Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Lennon, Conor & Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Teltser, Keith, 2025. "Ridesharing and substance use disorder treatment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Ridwan Ah Sheikh & Sunil Kanwar, 2024. "Revisiting the Impact of TRIPS on IPR-intensive Export Flows: Evidence from Staggered Difference-in-Differences," Working papers 351, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    6. Landgraf, Steven W., 2023. "Measuring incumbent ISP response to municipal broadband opt-out referenda in Colorado," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    7. Teltser, Keith & Lennon, Conor & Burgdorf, Jacob, 2021. "Do ridesharing services increase alcohol consumption?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Melanie A. Zaber & Jessie Coe & Marwa AlFakhri, 2025. "The impact of access to legal services on divorce outcomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 763-795, June.
    9. Conor Lennon & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Keith F. Teltser, 2024. "Ridesharing and Substance Use Disorder Treatment," NBER Working Papers 33077, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Hasan Shahid, 2024. "The impact of HIV/AIDS on marriage in the early years of the epidemic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(7), pages 1415-1425, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:369-401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.