IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v57y2004i2p249-266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Labor Market Effects of Welfare Reform

Author

Listed:
  • Darren Lubotsky

Abstract

A major goal of the 1996 federal welfare reform was to increase the labor market participation of welfare recipients. Some analysts have speculated that if the reform is successful, this increase in labor supply may exert downward pressure on wages and reduce the employment rate of other low-skilled workers in the labor market. The magnitude of these hypothetical labor market effects is uncertain because there have not been large changes in eligibility for federal welfare programs from which to draw inferences. This study treats the 1991 elimination of the General Assistance program in Michigan as a rough analog to the 1996 federal reform. In all, about 82,000 able-bodied adults lost benefits. Comparisons with other states indicate that employment in Michigan increased by two to four percentage points among high school dropouts, which corresponds to 25–50% of the original GA caseload. There is little evidence of wage or employment declines among other low-skilled workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Darren Lubotsky, 2004. "The Labor Market Effects of Welfare Reform," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(2), pages 249-266, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:57:y:2004:i:2:p:249-266
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390405700205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390405700205
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390405700205?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:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card, 1990. "The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(2), pages 245-257, January.
    2. Borjas, George J. & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1992. "Immigration and the Work Force," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226066332.
    3. Sims,Christopher A. (ed.), 1994. "Advances in Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521444606, October.
    4. George J. Borjas & Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 1992. "On the Labor Market Effects of Immigration and Trade," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas, pages 213-244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Timothy J. Bartik, 2000. "Displacement and Wage Effects of Welfare Reform," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: David E. Card & Rebecca M. Blank (ed.),Finding Jobs: Work and Welfare Reform, pages 72-122, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    6. Sims,Christopher A. (ed.), 1994. "Advances in Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521444590, October.
    7. Card, David, 2001. "Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 22-64, January.
    8. 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.
    9. Chinhui Juhn & Kevin M. Murphy & Robert H. Topel, 1991. "Why Has the Natural Rate of Unemployment Increased over Time?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(2), pages 75-142.
    10. George J. Borjas & Richard B. Freeman, 1992. "Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number borj92-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Brian C. Hill & Matthew N. Murray, 2008. "Interactions Between Welfare Caseloads And Local Labor Markets," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(4), pages 539-554, October.
    2. Nathan Berg & Todd Gabel, 2013. "Effects of New Welfare Reform Strategies on Welfare Participation: Microdata Estimates from Canada," Working Papers 1304, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2013.
    3. Divounguy Nding, Orphe, 2015. "Welfare Spending in the Long Run," MPRA Paper 68446, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, 2002. "Instrumental Variable Estimates of the Labor Market Spillover Effects of Welfare Reform," Upjohn Working Papers 02-78, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Charness, Gary & Levine, David I., 2002. "Changes in the employment contract?: Evidence from a quasi-experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 391-405, April.
    2. Aydemir, Abdurrahman B. & Kırdar, Murat G., 2017. "Quasi-experimental impact estimates of immigrant labor supply shocks: The role of treatment and comparison group matching and relative skill composition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 282-315.
    3. Eberhard, Juan, 2012. "Immigration, Human Capital and the Welfare of Natives," MPRA Paper 37844, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2011. "Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
    5. Kifle, Temesgen, 2009. "The effect of immigration on the earnings of native-born workers: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 350-356, March.
    6. Simonetta Longhi & Peter Nijkamp & Jacques Poot, 2009. "Regional Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Review," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-047/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 23 Jul 2009.
    7. Liesbet Okkerse, 2008. "How To Measure Labour Market Effects Of Immigration: A Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-30, February.
    8. Maude Toussaint-Comeau, 2007. "The impact of Mexican immigrants on U.S. wage structure," Working Paper Series WP-07-24, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    9. Zhao, Xiliang, 2020. "Migrants and urban wage: Evidence from China's internal migration," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    10. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2005. "Rethinking the Gains from Immigration: Theory and Evidence from the U.S," NBER Working Papers 11672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Steinhardt Max Friedrich, 2011. "The Wage Impact of Immigration in Germany - New Evidence for Skill Groups and Occupations," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-35, June.
    12. Thiess Buettner & Johannes Rincke, 2007. "Labor Market Effects of Economic Integration: The Impact of Re‐Unification in German Border Regions," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(4), pages 536-560, November.
    13. George J. Borjas, 1995. "The internationalization of the U.S. labor market and the wage structure," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jan, pages 3-8.
    14. Peter Hull & Michal Kolesár & Christopher Walters, 2022. "Labor by design: contributions of David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 603-645, July.
    15. Pischke, J.S. & Velling, J., 1994. "Wages and Employment Effects of Immigration to Germany: An Analysis Based on Local Labor Markets," Working papers 94-08, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    16. Akay, Alpaslan & Constant, Amelie & Giulietti, Corrado, 2014. "The impact of immigration on the well-being of natives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 72-92.
    17. Saiz, Albert, 2007. "Immigration and housing rents in American cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 345-371, March.
    18. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    19. Brücker, Herbert & Fachin, Stefano & Venturini, Alessandra, 2011. "Do foreigners replace native immigrants? A panel cointegration analysis of internal migration in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1078-1089, May.
    20. de la Rica, Sara & Glitz, Albrecht & Ortega, Francesc, 2013. "Immigration in Europe: Trends, Policies and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 7778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

    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:sae:ilrrev:v:57:y:2004:i:2:p:249-266. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    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.