Children's interests were frequently invoked during the congressional debate of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (hereafter referred to as the Personal Responsibility Act). Those who supported the act, those who wanted to amend it, and those who opposed it...

This research investigates the effects of poverty in early adulthood on future earnings. While social scientists are beginning to amass a considerable literature on the effects of poverty on outcomes for children, few have investigated the damage that impoverishment may do in early adulthood...

A downturn in the economy is inevitable — at some point, policy makers at the federal, state and local level will be faced with decisions about how to sustain a work-based assistance system when jobs are less readily available. With a fixed level of funding states and localities will be faced...

Transitory fluctuations in earnings have adverse consequences for the poor because of limited ability to smooth consumption. This paper investigates job instability and its consequences on earnings and income using 5 SIPP panels spanning 1983-1995. The paper discusses results for married men,...

Poverty among American Indians living on reservations in the United States remains a widespread and seemingly intractable problem. In order to address this problem it is imperative that researchers examine poverty and poverty policy longitudinally in order to better understand factors that...

This paper will address the burden imposed on states by cyclically-induced increases in the demand for welfare. The first part will estimate how much states likely will be forced to spend on additional welfare payments in the event of an economic downturn. I use data from 1976-1996 on welfare...

Social scientists know very little about the causes and consequences of children living apart from both parents even though recent welfare reform in the U.S. may potentially increase the number of children living in non-parent households. Using four panels of the Survey of Income and Program...

This paper investigates the impact of financial incentive programs, which have become an increasingly common component of welfare programs. We review experimental evidence from several such programs. Financial incentive programs appear to increase work and raise income (lower poverty), but cost...

The authors approach the study of welfare reform from a developmental-contextual (Lerner & Fisher, 1994), life span (Elder, 1997), and ecological (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1997) theoretical perspective that has applicability across a broad range of scientific and policy issues...

Over the past decade, public assistance caseloads have increased rapidly to an historical high point and then decreased with even greater speed to their lowest level in decades. Several recent papers have focused on the rise in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseloads in the...