Welfare Rules, Incentives, and Family Structure

Robert Moffitt, Brian J. Phelan () and Anne Winkler
Additional contact information
Brian J. Phelan: DePaul University

No 9127, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In this study we provide a new examination of the incentive effects of welfare rules on family structure. Focusing on the AFDC and TANF programs, we first emphasize that the literature, by and large, has assumed that the rules of those programs make a key distinction between married women and cohabiting women, but this is not a correct interpretation. In fact, it is the biological relationship between the children and any male in the household that primarily determines how the family is treated. In an empirical analysis conducted over the period 1996 to 2004 that correctly matches family structure outcomes to welfare rules, we find significant effects of several welfare policies on family structure, both work-related policies and family-oriented policies, effects that are stronger than in most past work. Many of our significant effects show that these rules led to a decrease in single motherhood and an increase in biological partnering. For all of our results, our findings indicate that the impact of welfare rules crucially hinges on the biological relationship of the male partner to the children in the household.

Keywords: family; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I3 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2015-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - substantially revised version published in: Journal of Human Resources, 2020, 55 (1), 1 - 42

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp9127.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Welfare Rules, Incentives, and Family Structure (2020)
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:iza:izadps:dp9127

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().