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

Marike Knoef and Jan van Ours

No 8188, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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: natural experiment; single mothers; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 C93 I38 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Forthcoming - published in: Journal of Population Economics, 2016, 29, 1025-1061.

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