Beyond single mothers: Cohabition, marriage, and the U.S. welfare system

Robert Moffitt, R. Reville and Anne Winkler

Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers from University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty

Abstract: We investigate the extent and implications of cohabitation and marriage among U.S. welfare recipients. An analysis of four data sets (the CPS, NSFH, PSID, and NLSY) shows significant numbers of cohabitors among recipients of AFDC. An even more surprising finding is the large number of married women on AFDC. We also report the results of a telephone survey of state AFDC agencies conducted to determine state rules governing cohabitation and marriage. The survey results indicate that, in a number of respects, cohabitation is encouraged by the AFDC rules. Finally, we conduct a brief analysis of the impact of AFDC rules on cohabitation, marriage, and headship, and find weak evidence in support of incentives to cohabit.

References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/dp106895.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:wop:wispod:1068-95

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers from University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().