The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Single Motherhood and Headship of Young Women: Evidence from the Census

Francine Blau, Lawrence Kahn and Jane Waldfogel

No 9338, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper uses data from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 Censuses to investigate the impact of welfare benefits across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) on the incidence of single motherhood and headship for young women. A contribution of the paper is the inclusion of both MSA fixed effects and MSA-specific time trends to account for fixed and trending unmeasured factors that could influence both welfare benefit levels and family formation. In such a model, we find no effect of welfare benefits on single motherhood for whites or blacks, and a positive effect of welfare benefits on single headship only for blacks.

JEL-codes: I3 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-11
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Published as Blau, Francine, Lawrence M. Kahn and Jane Waldfogel. “The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Single Motherhood and Headship of Young Women: Evidence from the Census." Journal of Human Resources (Spring 2004).

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