Nationally, the welfare caseload declined by more than fifty percent between 1994 and 2000. Considerable research has been devoted to understanding what caused this decline. Much of the literature examining these changes has modeled the total caseload (the stock) directly. Klerman and Haider...

Using data from nationwide and California-specific surveys, the authors provide evidence on the importance of the number of "entries" into the welfare system to explain the decline in welfare caseload during the late 1990s.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides a monthly benefit to low-income families to help ensure an adequate and nutritious diet, has grown rapidly in recent years—by 50 percent in the seven years between 2000 and 2007 and by another 50 percent in the four years...

During the 1990s, the welfare caseload peaked and then declined by about half. The decline occurred simultaneously with a robust economic expansion and a series of major welfare reforms. This paper reconsiders the methods used in the previous studies to explain these changes. The authors...