An explanation of an alternative analysis of poverty based on consumption rather than on annual income, which disputes the documented breakdown in progress against poverty in the 1980s and concludes that the poor appear to benefit from a growing economy now as much as in previous decades.

An empirical test of AFDC's asset limit, finding that after correcting for the potential endogeneity of policy, a $1 difference in limits implies a difference in potential AFDC recipients' wealth of 30 cents. ; This paper uses a stochastic cost frontier to examine the scale economies, cost...

A longitudinal study examining how the level of AFDC benefits and the per-child increment affect births. Although the findings support the "AFDC benefits cause births" hypothesis, the author shows that eliminating the new-birth increment would reduce total program costs by less than 3 percent,...

An examination of the huge variation in U.S. regional poverty rates, showing that although demographic, policy, and cost-of-living factors all play a role, economic differences are key.

An examination of how potential welfare recipients would be affected by reform proposals calling for a reduction in benefits and a shift in fiscal responsibility from the federal government to the states, with emphasis on the sometimes substantial impact of business cycle swings on welfare...

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in the United States creates incentives for potential aged recipients to reduce labor supply prior to becoming eligible, and past research finds evidence of such behavior for older men. There may be a migration response to across-state variation in...

Because the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has both income limits and asset limits, those on the margin of eligibility for the elderly component of the program face incentives to reduce labor supply prior to becoming eligible. The authors’ past research relying on cross-state...

Welfare reform changed the federal funding mechanism for state-run welfare programs for families from an open-ended match to fixed block grants. Major concerns about reform were that states would receive less federal funding in the long run and face hard-to-plan-for volatility in demands for...

Features of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and the social security retirement system interact to create incentives for prospective participants in the aged portion of SSI to withdraw from the labor force and make an early old age insurance (OAI) claim under social security. This...

This paper uses data from the Mexican Family Life Survey to estimate the impact of a household member's migration to the United States on the cognitive development of children remaining in Mexico. While there is no developmental effect of a child's sibling migrating to the United States, there...