The Impact of Cash Transfers to Poor Mothers on Family Structure and Maternal Well-Being

Anna Aizer, Sungwoo Cho, Shari Eli and Adriana Lleras-Muney

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 492-529

Abstract: We use newly collected data for 16,000 women who applied for Mothers' Pensions, America's first welfare program, to investigate the effect of means-tested cash transfers on lifetime family structure and maternal well-being. In the short term, cash transfers delayed marriage and lowered geographic mobility. In the long run, transfers had no impact on the probability of remarriage, spouse quality, or fertility. Cash transfers did not affect women's well-being, measured by longevity and family income in 1940. Given the lack of significant negative behavioral impacts, the benefits of transfers appear to exceed costs if they have—even modest—positive impacts on children.

JEL-codes: I31 I32 I38 J13 J16 N32 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210816 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E184481V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210816.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210816.ds (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:aejapp:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:492-529

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

DOI: 10.1257/app.20210816

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

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