Welfare Reform: Success with Trouble Spots

The papers included in this [welfare] symposium provide excellent examples of this growing body of research. The most important issues addressed by these papers are whether the effects of welfare reform are similar in urban and rural areas and across racial and ethnic groups, whether welfare reform affects children, and whether adult and child well-being vary depending on the circumstances under which families leave welfare. The papers also bear on the big issues of welfare use, employment, earnings, and poverty. [This article comments on articles in a welfare symposium in this issue of the Eastern Economic Journal.