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Have Welfare-to-Work Programs Improved over Time in Putting Welfare Recipients to Work?

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  • David Greenberg
  • Philip K. Robins

Abstract

The authors examine data from 21 random assignment evaluations of 76 experimental welfare-to-work programs conducted in the United States between 1983 and 1998 to determine whether the impacts of these programs on employment improved over time. Welfare-to-work programs have long played an important role in the federal assistance program known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), now called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Over the 16-year period covered by the experiments, an increasing percentage of control group members received services similar to those offered to program group members. As a result, the differential participation in program service activities between the program and the control group decreased steadily over time, reducing the impact of these programs on employment. The negative influence of the reduced incremental services was nevertheless offset by other factors that resulted in program impacts remaining essentially constant during the study period. The authors suggest ways to improve program impacts in future experiments.

Suggested Citation

  • David Greenberg & Philip K. Robins, 2011. "Have Welfare-to-Work Programs Improved over Time in Putting Welfare Recipients to Work?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(5), pages 910-920, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:64:y:2011:i:5:p:910-920
    DOI: 10.1177/001979391106400504
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, 2001. "Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1063-1114.
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    1. Burt S. Barnow & Jeffrey Smith, 2015. "Employment and Training Programs," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 2, pages 127-234, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Carlos A. Flores & Oscar A. Mitnik, 2013. "Comparing Treatments across Labor Markets: An Assessment of Nonexperimental Multiple-Treatment Strategies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1691-1707, December.
    3. Filandri, Marianna & Struffolino, Emanuela, 2018. "Lavoratori o lavoratrici povere? Disuguaglianze di genere nel mercato del lavoro in Europa," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 117, pages 67-85.
    4. Filandri, Marianna & Struffolino, Emanuela, 2019. "Individual and household in-work poverty in Europe: understanding the role of labor market characteristics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 21(1), pages 130-157.
    5. Richard Dorsett & Philip K. Robins, 2013. "A Multilevel Analysis of the Impacts of Services Provided by the U.K. Employment Retention and Advancement Demonstration," Evaluation Review, , vol. 37(2), pages 63-108, April.
    6. 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.

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