Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net

Hamish Low, Costas Meghir (), Luigi Pistaferri and Alessandra Voena
Additional contact information
Costas Meghir: Cowles Foundation, Yale University, https://economics.yale.edu/people/faculty/costas-meghir
Luigi Pistaferri: Stanford University, NBER, CEPR and SIEPR
Alessandra Voena: Stanford University, NBER, CEPR and SIEPR

No 2121R, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

Abstract: The 1996 US welfare reform introduced time limits on welfare receipt. We use quasi-experimental evidence and a lifecycle model of marriage, divorce, program participa-tion, labor supply and savings to understand the impact of time limits on behavior and well-being. Time limits cause women to defer claiming in anticipation of future needs, an effect that depends on the probabilities of marriage and divorce. Time limits cost women 0.5% of life-time consumption, net of revenue savings redistributed by reduced taxation, with some groups affected much more. Expectations over future marital status are important determinants of the value of the social safety net.

Keywords: Time limits; Welfare reform; Life-cycle; marriage and divorce; time limits; limited commitment; intrahousehold allocations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 H53 J12 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 94 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dge, nep-ltv and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2023-02/d2121r2.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net (2018)
Working Paper: Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net (2018)
Working Paper: Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net (2018)
Working Paper: Marriage, labour supply and the dynamics of the social safety net (2018)
Working Paper: Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2121r

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Cowles Foundation, Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA
The price is None.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Brittany Ladd ().