Fighting Poverty One Family at a Time: Experimental Evidence from an Intervention with Holistic, Individualized, Wraparound Services

William N. Evans, Shawna Kolka, James X. Sullivan and Patrick S. Turner

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, 311-61

Abstract: Families in poverty face numerous barriers to establishing stable economic footing. This paper estimates experimental effects of a holistic, individualized wraparound service intervention for low-income individuals. The intervention includes a detailed assessment, an individualized service plan, intensive case management administered by a two-person team with small caseloads, and strategic financial assistance. The program improved employment and housing outcomes two years postenrollment. Given the customized nature of the services, overall program effects mask heterogeneity. Exploratory analysis suggests that the program helped employ participants who lacked employment but had stable housing and that those without stable housing were helped in securing it.

JEL-codes: I32 I38 L31 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200716 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E193743V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200716.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200716.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:aejpol:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:311-61

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

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200716

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

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