Some scholars and many policymakers claim that poor people, in order to improve their lot, move to states that offer high welfare benefits. The authors test the validity of this claim using data from six Current Population Surveys: 1982-1984 and 1986-1988. They find no evidence to support the...

In this paper, we track the level of economic well-being of the population of men who began receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits in 1980–81 from the time just after they became beneficiaries (in 1982) to 1991, nearly a decade later. We present measures of the economic...

One goal of federal housing policy is to improve the prospects of children in poor families. But little research has been conducted into the effects on children of participation in housing programs, perhaps because it is difficult to find data sets with information about both participation and...

Some scholars have attributed earnings differences among locations to labor market conditions ("place effects") whereas others have focused on the skill level of residents ("person effects"). We estimate a variety of selection models in an effort to detect differences in labor market conditions...

States with family cap public assistance policies deny or reduce additional welfare benefits to mothers who conceive and give birth to additional children while they are receiving aid. By 1999, 22 states had family cap policies in place. Little is known about the incidence of conceptions leading...

Dramatic reductions in welfare caseloads since passage of the Personal Responsibility and WorkOpportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 have not allayed policy concerns about the employability of recipients remaining on the rolls. Analysis of potential barriers to employment can address whether...

It is tempting to try to infer the welfare effects of minimum wage changes from empirical observations on pre- and post change employment and unemployment levels and wage or earnings distributions. Using a simple model of search, matching, and bargaining, I characterize the relationship between...

Nearly all states are thinking about reforming their welfare systems, and several states--particularly those that offer high welfare benefits--are taking action. A major concern is that poor people are moving to high- benefit states in order to receive the benefits offered by those states. It is...

We use state-level panel data for federal fiscal years 1980–1998 to estimate the impacts of welfare reform and the business cycle on food stamp caseloads. The model we employ is a dynamic function of past caseloads, economic factors, AFDC and Food Stamp Program policies, political factors,...