Welfare Rules, Incentives, and Family Structure

Robert Moffitt, Brian J. Phelan and Anne Winkler

Journal of Human Resources, 2020, vol. 55, issue 1, 1-42

Abstract: We reexamine the effects of welfare on family structure, emphasizing that AFDC and TANF rules are based more on the biological relationship of the mother’s children to any male in the household than on marriage or cohabitation. We find that many 1990s welfare reform policies did not affect family structure, but that several work-related reforms increased single parenthood and decreased marriage to biological fathers. These effects are most evident when work-related reforms are bundled and examined over a longer time period. We hypothesize that these effects stem from increased earnings of single mothers and factors specific to biological fathers.

JEL-codes: I38 J12 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.55.1.0717.8928R
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/55/1/1
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
Working Paper: Welfare Rules, Incentives, and Family Structure (2015)
Working Paper: Welfare Rules, Incentives, and Family Structure (2015)
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:uwp:jhriss:v:55:y:2020:i:1:p:1-42

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().