More, Less, or More of the Same? Trends in State Social Welfare Policy in the 1990s

Major reforms to cash assistance and other welfare programs in the 1990s raise questions about whether states gained new flexibility in setting social policies, and, if so, how they exercised this flexibility. We extend prior research on state social policy by examining trends during the middle to late 1990s in five areas of cash or near-cash policy affecting the economic security of low-income families. We find evidence of substantial change in the generosity and the availability of these benefits between 1994 and 1999, along with evidence of greater divergence or cross-state variation in policy choices. By considering several forms of assistance simultaneously, we also find evidence that states constricted traditional welfare-based assistance while expanding some forms of non-welfare support for the working poor. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.