Welfare Reform and New York City’s Low-Income Population

[...]Although our analysis compares outcomes before and afterPRWORA, it should be made clear that because the formalstate plan for welfare reform did not take effect until 1999, weare not really evaluating welfare reform in New York City.Instead, our results primarily reflect the net effect of changes incity administrative policies—characterized as push factors—and the pull of economic growth on the receipt of publicassistance.The plan of the paper is as follows. Section II discusses thechanges in welfare law and administrative policy in New Yorkand their potential effect on public assistance recipients.Section III describes the data source. Section IV addresses theissue of the packaging of programs and the extent to which thesocial safety net has been preserved. Section V considersdifferences among ethnic groups in changes in publicassistance receipt. Section VI describes the changes in incomeand earnings among New Yorkers at risk of needing publicassistance. The final section summarizes our findings andhighlights the most striking results.