The Long-Run Impact of Cash Transfers to Poor Families

Anna Aizer, Shari Eli, Joseph Ferrie and Adriana Lleras-Muney

American Economic Review, 2016, vol. 106, issue 4, 935-71

Abstract: We estimate the long-run impact of cash transfers to poor families on children's longevity, educational attainment, nutritional status, and income in adulthood. To do so, we collected individual- level administrative records of applicants to the Mothers' Pension program -- the first government-sponsored welfare program in the United States (1911-1935) -- and matched them to census, WWII, and death records. Male children of accepted applicants lived one year longer than those of rejected mothers. They also obtained one-third more years of schooling, were less likely to be underweight, and had higher income in adulthood than children of rejected mothers. (JEL I12, I14, I18, I32, I38, J16, N32)

JEL-codes: I12 I14 I18 I32 I38 J16 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20140529
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (158)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.20140529 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10604/20140529_data.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10604/20140529_app.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10604/20140529_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

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:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:4:p:935-71

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().