How to Stimulate Single Mothers on Welfare to Find a Job; Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Marike Knoef, Jan C. van Ours and Jan C. van Ours
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Jan van Ours

No 4804, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We present the results from a natural experiment in which single mothers on welfare were stimulated to find a job. Two policy instruments were introduced: an earnings disregard and job creation. The experiment was performed at the level of municipalities in The Netherlands, a country with relatively high benefits and low incentives for single mothers to leave welfare for work. In our analysis, we make a distinction between native and immigrant welfare recipients. For immigrant single mothers and some groups of native single mothers we find a positive employment effect of an earnings disregard. Job creation in addition to the earnings disregard increased working hours for some groups of single mothers. Although the outflow from welfare was not affected, welfare expenditures were reduced.

Keywords: welfare; single mothers; natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 C93 I38 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: How to Stimulate Single Mothers on Welfare to Find a Job: Evidence from a Natural Experiment (2014)
Working Paper: How to Stimulate Single Mothers on Welfare to Find a Job: Evidence from a Natural Experiment (2014)
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