Happy 18th Birthday, Now Leave: Estimating the Causal Effects of Extended Foster Care

Alexa Prettyman

No 2024-02, Working Papers from Towson University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Over 20,000 youth age out of foster care each year in the United States and face various hardships. Exploiting plausibly exogenous policy variation, I find that exposure to extended foster care reduces homelessness and incarceration by 29 and 38 percent, respectively. Outcomes from the National Youth in Transition Database, a longitudinal survey that collects information from foster youth at ages 17, 19, and 21, are linked to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, administrative data containing information about individuals' foster care history. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that extended foster care yields a 4:1 return on investment.

Keywords: Foster youth; Extended foster care; Transition to adulthood. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 78 pages
Date: 2024-02, Revised 2024-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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