IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ifauwp/2008_013.html

Welfare reform: the US experience

Author

Listed:
  • Moffitt, Robert

    (John Hopkins University)

Abstract

The reform of the cash-based welfare program for single mothers in the US which occurred in the 1990s was the most important since its inception in 1935. The reforms imposed credible and enforceable work requirements into the program for the first time, as well as establishing time limits on lifetime receipt. Research on the effects of the reform have shown it to have reduced the program caseload and governmental expenditures on the program. In addition, the reform has had generally positive average effects on employment, earnings, and income, and generally negative effects on poverty rates, although the gains are not evenly distributed across groups. A fraction of the affected group appears to have been made worse off by the reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Moffitt, Robert, 2008. "Welfare reform: the US experience," Working Paper Series 2008:13, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2008/wp08-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey Grogger, 2004. "Time Limits and Welfare Use," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    2. Jeffrey Grogger & Steven J. Haider & Jacob Klerman, 2003. "Why Did the Welfare Rolls Fall During the 1990's? The Importance of Entry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 288-292, May.
    3. Røed, Knut & Westlie, Lars, 2007. "Unemployment Insurance in Welfare States: Soft Constraints and Mild Sanctions," Memorandum 13/2007, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    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. Todd, Jessica E. & Newman, Constance & Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2010. "Changing Participation in Food Assistance Programs Among Low-Income Children After Welfare Reform," Economic Research Report 58613, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Lane Destro & David Brady, 2010. "Does European-Style Welfare Generosity Discourage Single Mother Employment?," LIS Working papers 548, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Pavoni, Nicola & Setty, Ofer & Violante, Giovanni L., 2010. "Search and Work in Optimal Welfare Programs," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275749, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Jane Waldfogel, 2007. "Welfare Reforms and Child Well-Being in the US and UK," CASE Papers case126, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    5. Avram, Silvia & Brewer, Mike & Salvatori, Andrea, 2018. "Can't work or won't work: Quasi-experimental evidence on work search requirements for single parents," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 63-85.
    6. Shanan, Yannay, 2024. "The intergenerational effects of welfare transfers among single mothers: Evidence from an Israeli welfare reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).

    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. Berg, Nathan & Gabel, Todd, 2010. "New Reform Strategies and Welfare Participation in Canada," MPRA Paper 26591, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Nathan Berg & Todd Gabel, 2015. "Did Canadian welfare reform work? The effects of new reform strategies on social assistance participation," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 48(2), pages 494-528, May.
    3. Dhaval Dave & Hope Corman & Nancy Reichman, 2012. "Effects of Welfare Reform on Education Acquisition of Adult Women," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 251-282, June.
    4. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:9:y:2008:i:8:p:1-9 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Rebecca M. Blank, 2002. "Evaluating Welfare Reform in the United States," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1105-1166, December.
    6. Gaure, Simen & Røed, Knut & Westlie, Lars, 2008. "The Impacts of Labor Market Policies on Job Search Behavior and Post-Unemployment Job Quality," Memorandum 22/2008, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    7. Dahlberg, Matz & Johansson, Kajsa & Mörk, Eva, 2008. "On mandatory activation of welfare receivers," Working Paper Series 2008:24, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    8. Jeffrey Grogger, 2004. "Welfare transitions in the 1990s: The economy, welfare policy, and the EITC," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4), pages 671-695.
    9. Corman, Hope & Dave, Dhaval M. & Reichman, Nancy E., 2014. "Effects of welfare reform on women's crime," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Jeffrey Grogger, 2001. "The Effects of Time Limits and Other Policy Changes on Welfare Use, Work, and Income Among Female-Headed Families," NBER Working Papers 8153, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Rebecca M. Blank & David T. Ellwood, 2001. "The Clinton Legacy for America's Poor," NBER Working Papers 8437, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Erik Hembre, 2023. "Examining SNAP and TANF caseload trends, responsiveness, and policies during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 262-281, April.
    13. Gabrielle Pepin, 2022. "The effects of welfare time limits on access to financial resources: Evidence from the 2010s," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(4), pages 1343-1372, April.
    14. Neeraj Kaushal & Robert Kaestner, 2001. "From Welfare to Work: Has Welfare Reform Worked?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 699-719.
    15. Marianne P. Bitler & Jonah B. Gelbach & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2005. "Welfare Reform and Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(2).
    16. Dave, Dhaval M. & Reichman, Nancy E. & Corman, Hope & Das, Dhiman, 2011. "Effects of welfare reform on vocational education and training," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1399-1415.
    17. Charles Michalopoulos, 2004. "Welfare Time Limits in the United States," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 2(2), pages 64-68, 07.
    18. Jeffrey Grogger, 2002. "The Behavioral Effects of Welfare Time Limits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 385-389, May.
    19. Grogger, Jeffrey, 2007. "Markov forecasting methods for welfare caseloads," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 900-911, July.
    20. Rebecca M. Blank & David Card & Hanns Kuttner, 2024. "Newly Poor Women and the Social Safety Net, 1990–2010," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 711(1), pages 121-143, January.
    21. repec:osf:osfxxx:b9vft_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Hau Chyi, 2013. "The 1993 EITC Expansion and Low-Skilled Single Mothers’Welfare Use Decision," Working Papers 2013-10-14, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:ifauwp:2008_013. 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: Malin Lindkvist (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifagvse.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.