In the wake of welfare reform, many states-including Mississippi-have considered utilizing religious congregations as a provider of services to the needy. The possibility of utilizing religious congregations to provide social services previously borne by the state stems from the "charitable...

A primary goal of the landmark 1996 welfare reform legislation is to increase marriage rates among unskilled women with children. Current theories of marriage under-predict the extent of non-marriage, have not been adequately tested, or do not apply well to women with low-socioeconomic status....

Devolution of authority over social programs creates a particular challenge for those attempting to assess the effects of this shift in the structure of American federalism. While the increased diversity among state policies may provide fertile ground for exploring the effects of individual...

Crime has fallen dramatically in the 1990s. While many explanations for this decline have been offered, each of them has difficulty explaining the timing, large magnitude, persistence, and widespread nature of the drop. In this paper we propose a new explanation for falling crime: the...

We began this research with the belief that low and declining levels of private-employer sponsored health insurance were a continuing problem, especially among less skilled workers. But, our analysis paints a more complex picture. Using data from the March CPS, the SIPP, and the CPS benefits...

Can economic incentives be used to affect marriage behavior and slow the growth of single-parent families? This paper provides new evidence on the effects of welfare benefit levels on the marital decisions of poor women. Exogenous variation in welfare benefits arises from a randomized experiment...

The Boston story is similar to that of other cities but is unusual in two important respects. First, the drop in the homicide rate between 1990 and 1996 has been the sharpest in the nation. Perhaps even more impressive, for the 29-month period ending in January 1998, Boston had no teenage...

Despite the large amount of work in labor economics devoted towards wage progress we know surprisingly little about the mechanics of wage growth, particularly among low skilled workers. This paper takes a step in this direction by examining wage progression between and among moderate to low...

Using survey and administrative data from a study of welfare recipients in the Chicago metropolitan area, an analysis of the predictors of involvement with the child welfare system was conducted. Housing moves, births, and poor child health were strongly associated with child welfare risk. A...

In this paper, we exploit a "natural experiment" associated with human reproduction to identify the effect of teen childbearing on subsequent educational attainment, family structure, labor market outcomes, and financial self-sufficiency. In particular, we exploit the fact that a substantial...