Welfare Reform in the Mid-2000s: How African American and Hispanic Families in Three Cities Are Faring

Andrew Cherlin, Bianca Frogner, David Ribar and Robert Moffitt
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Andrew Cherlin: Johns Hopkins University
Bianca Frogner: Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2009, vol. 621, issue 1, 178-201

Abstract: This article reports on a sample of 538 African American and Hispanic women who were receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 1999, 416 of whom left the program by 2005. The Hispanic women consisted of a Mexican-origin group and a second group that was primarily Puerto Rican and Dominican. Combining the experiences of the employed and the non-employed welfare leavers, the authors find at best a modest decline in the average poverty rate among African American welfare leavers between 1999 and 2005. Hispanic leavers showed larger average declines in poverty. Among just the welfare leavers who were employed in 2005, the averages for women in all racial-ethnic groups showed increases in household income and declines in poverty. Among those who were not employed, African Americans had experienced a decline in household income and were further below the poverty line than in 1999, whereas Hispanic women had experienced modest declines or slight increases in their household incomes.

Keywords: welfare reform; poverty; families; African Americans; Mexican Americans; Puerto Ricans; Dominicans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:621:y:2009:i:1:p:178-201

DOI: 10.1177/0002716208324851

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