As the Clinton administration considers major overhauls in health insurance, welfare, and labor market regulation, it is important for economists and policymakers to understand the impact of social and welfare programs on employment rates. This volume explores how programs such as social...

Public assistance payments have been blamed for increases in out-ofwedlock birth rates among teenagers and other women. The data indicate that rising nonmarital birth rates are primarily caused by a decline in fertility among married women, combined with a growing share of unmarried women in the...

The first part of this paper reviews five major theoretical approaches that describe the fundamental causes of poverty, with particular attention to what these theories imply about government policy towards markets and the need for immediate poverty alleviation. Different causal theories have...

The <i>Journal of Economic Literature</i> regularly reviews books of interest to the economics profession. The 2006 <i>Economic Report of the President (ERP)</i> falls under that purview. In the reviews that follow, Martin Feldstein reviews the overview chapter of the as well as topics relating to...

Major welfare reform legislation passed the U.S. Congress in August 1996 by a broad bipartisan majority and was signed into law by President Clinton. Almost 10 years and many research articles later, the long-term effects of welfare reform are still being debated.