Changes in social policies in the mid-1990s increased the penalties for not working and raised the rewards for working. These policies played a major role in stimulating employment among single mothers and the gains were approximately as high in nonmetro areas as in metro areas

Despite the significant flow of single mothers into the job market as a result of welfare reform between 1996 and 1998, this analysis of 20 metropolitan areas indicates that labor markets were able to absorb these new workers without a negative impact on competing workers. Double-digit rates of...