Welfare reforms and child well-being in the US and UK

Jane Waldfogel ()
Additional contact information
Jane Waldfogel: Columbia University School of Social Work, Postal: 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 100027, USA

No 2008:11, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of recent welfare reforms in the US and UK on the well-being of children in low-income families, looking specifically at the effects on poverty, family expenditures, and child health and development. The paper finds some commonalities but also some notable differences. Common to both countries is a sizable reduction in child poverty, although the reduction in child poverty in the US has been less, and some families appear to have been left behind. Expenditure data also point to divergence across the two countries. In the UK, low-income families affected by the reforms are spending more money on items related to children and are more likely to own a car and a phone, while in the US, families affected by welfare reforms are primarily spending more money on items related to employment but not items for children. Finally, a common finding across countries is a relative dearth of more direct evidence on the well-being of children, and specifically how the reforms have affected child health and development. Identifying such effects remains an important topic for further research.

Keywords: Welfare reform; Child well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2008-05-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-hap
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2008/wp08-11.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2008/wp08-11.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2008/wp08-11.pdf)

Related works:
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:hhs:ifauwp:2008_011

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy IFAU, P O Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ali Ghooloo ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).