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Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform

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This paper explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state. We find that although nonwhites are sanctioned at lower rates than whites overall, nonwhites are sanctioned more compared to whites in each local area. This paradox occurs because nonwhites tend to live in areas with lower sanction rates. Consistent with the literature on race and policy, we find that sanction rates increase as the nonwhite population increases until a threshold is reached where nonwhites gain political power.

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  • Peter R. Mueser & Lael R. Keiser & Seung-Whan Choi, 2003. "Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform," Working Papers 0307, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:0307
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    1. Schneider, Anne & Ingram, Helen, 1993. "Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 334-347, June.
    2. Peter R. Mueser & Kenneth Troske & William J. Carrington, 2002. "The Impact of Welfare Reform on Leaver Characteristics, Employment and Recidivism," Working Papers 0205, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 26 Aug 2002.
    3. Orr, Larry L, 1976. "Income Transfers as a Public Good: An Application to AFDC," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(3), pages 359-371, June.
    4. Brown, Robert D., 1995. "Party Cleavages and Welfare Effort in the American States," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(1), pages 23-33, March.
    5. Lieberman, Robert C. & Lapinski, John S., 2001. "American Federalism, Race and the Administration of Welfare," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(2), pages 303-329, April.
    6. Scholz, John T. & Wei, Feng Heng, 1986. "Regulatory Enforcement in a Federalist System," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1249-1270, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Oscar Mitnik, 2008. "How do Training Programs Assign Participants to Training? Characterizing the Assignment Rules of Government Agencies for Welfare-to-Work Programs in California," Working Papers 0907, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    2. Julia Shu-Huah Wang, 2021. "State TANF Time Limit and Work Sanction Stringencies and Long-Term Trajectories of Welfare Use, Labor Supply, and Income," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 650-696, December.
    3. Adam M. Butz, 2016. "Theorizing About Poverty and Paternalism in Suburban America: The Case of Welfare Sanctions," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), pages 129-140, June.
    4. Marjolijn De Wilde & Sarah Marchal, 2018. "Weighing up work willingness in social assistance: a balancing act on multiple levels," Working Papers 1808, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    5. Chung, Yiyoon, 2015. "Does SNAP serve as a safety net for mothers facing an economic shock? An analysis of Black and White unwed mothers' responses to paternal imprisonment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 179-192.
    6. Faith Bradley & William D. Schreckhise & Daniel E. Chand, 2017. "Explaining States’ Responses to the REAL ID Act: the Role of Resources, Political Environment, and Implementor Attitudes in Complying with a Federal Mandate," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(3), pages 877-897, September.
    7. Jamila Michener, 2016. "Race, Poverty, and the Redistribution of Voting Rights," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), pages 106-128, June.
    8. Rodriguez, Javier M. & Geronimus, Arline T. & Bound, John & Dorling, Danny, 2015. "Black lives matter: Differential mortality and the racial composition of the U.S. electorate, 1970–2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 193-199.
    9. Rueß, Stefanie & Schneider, Gerald & Vogler, Jan, 2024. "Priming and prejudice: Experimental evidence on negative news frames and discrimination in German welfare offices," Working Papers 34, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    10. Adman, Per & Larsson Taghizadeh, Jonas, 2020. "Public officials’ treatment of minority clients," Working Paper Series 2020:12, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • L32 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Enterprises; Public-Private Enterprises
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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