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Welfare-to-Work Reform and Intergenerational Support: Grandmothers’ Response to the 1996 PRWORA

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  • Christine Ho

    (School of Economics, Singapore Management University, Singapore, 178903)

Abstract

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in the US aimed at encouraging work among low income mothers with children aged below 18. In this paper, we use a sample of 2,843 intergenerational family observations from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate the effects of the reform on single grandmothers who are related to those mothers. The results suggest that that the reform decreased time transfers but increased money transfers from grandmothers. Our results are consistent with an intergenerational family support network where higher child care subsidies motivated the family to shift away from grandmothe provided child care, and where grandmothers increased money transfers to either help cover the remaining cost of formal care or to partly compensate for the loss in benefits of welfare leavers.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Ho, 2014. "Welfare-to-Work Reform and Intergenerational Support: Grandmothers’ Response to the 1996 PRWORA," Working Papers 12-2014, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:siu:wpaper:12-2014
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    Keywords

    child care; indirect intent-to-treat effects; intergenerational family; welfare reform;
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