Adolescents' formal employment and school enrollment: Effects of state welfare policies

Lingxin Hao, Nan M. Astone and Andrew J. Cherlin
Additional contact information
Lingxin Hao: Johns Hopkins University, Postal: Johns Hopkins University
Nan M. Astone: Johns Hopkins University, Postal: Johns Hopkins University
Andrew J. Cherlin: Johns Hopkins University, Postal: Johns Hopkins University

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2004, vol. 23, issue 4, 697-721

Abstract: Variations in state welfare policies in the reform era may affect adolescents through two mechanisms: A competing labor market hypothesis posits that stringent state welfare policies may reduce adolescent employment; and a signaling hypothesis posits that stringent welfare policies may promote enrollment. To test these hypotheses, we use a dynamic joint model of adolescents' school enrollment and formal employment, separating state welfare policies from non-welfare state policies, state labor market conditions, and unobserved state characteristics. Longitudinal data from the NLSY97 on adolescents aged 14 to 18 and various state data sources over the period 1994-1999 support the competing labor market effect but not the signaling effect. In particular, lower-income dropouts suffer more severely from fewer labor market opportunities when state welfare policies are more stringent, which indicates that welfare reform may compromise work opportunities for lower-income dropouts. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.20043 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

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:wly:jpamgt:v:23:y:2004:i:4:p:697-721

DOI: 10.1002/pam.20043

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().