IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v8y1990i1p110-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Decade Of Declining Welfare Participation: Sorting Out The Causes

Author

Listed:
  • PHILIP K. ROBINS

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, the proportion of all single‐parent families receiving benefits from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program has been declining. This is reversing an earlier two‐decade trend. This paper uses data from the Current Population Survey so as to investigate the reasons for the decline. The analysis reveals that for the years prior to 1981, the decline has resulted both from an erosion in real AFDC guarantee levels–caused by high rates of inflation–and from changes in demographic conditions. For the years subsequent to 1981, the decline has resulted from an increase in effective AFDC benefit reduction rates caused by the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981. Somewhat offsetting the participation rate decline were falling real child support collections and a rising unemployment rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip K. Robins, 1990. "A Decade Of Declining Welfare Participation: Sorting Out The Causes," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(1), pages 110-123, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:8:y:1990:i:1:p:110-123
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00585.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00585.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00585.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moffitt, Robert, 1983. "An Economic Model of Welfare Stigma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1023-1035, December.
    2. Robins, Philip K, 1986. "Child Support, Welfare Dependency, and Poverty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 768-788, September.
    3. Thomas Fraker & Robert Moffitt & Douglas Wolf, 1985. "Effective Tax Rates and Guarantees in the AFDC Program, 1967-1982," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 20(2), pages 251-263.
    4. Douglas Wolf & David Greenberg, 1986. "The Dynamics of Welfare Fraud: An Econometric Duration Model in Discrete Time," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 21(4), pages 437-455.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip K. Robins, 1990. "Explaining Recent Declines in Afdc Participation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 18(2), pages 236-255, April.
    2. R. L. Hanson & J. T. Hartman, "undated". "Do welfare magnets attract?," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1028-94, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    3. Blundell, Richard & Macurdy, Thomas, 1999. "Labor supply: A review of alternative approaches," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1559-1695, Elsevier.
    4. Hau Chyi, 2013. "The Effects of Single Mothers’Welfare Participation and Work Decisions on Children’s Attainments," Working Papers 2013-10-14, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University.
    5. Christopher A. Swann, 2005. "Welfare Reform When Recipients Are Forward-Looking," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    6. Shao-Hsun Keng & Steven B. Garasky & Helen H. Jensen, 2000. "Welfare Dependence, Recidivism, and the Future for Recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 00-wp242, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    7. Ermisch, John F. & Wright, Robert E., 1995. "Lone parenthood and employment: male-female differences in Great Britain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 299-317, September.
    8. Laurie J. Bassi, 1987. "Training the Disadvantaged," Evaluation Review, , vol. 11(4), pages 493-509, August.
    9. P. A. Smith, "undated". "The Effect of the 1981 Welfare Reforms on AFDC Participation and Labor Supply," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1117-97, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    10. Thomas J. Nechyba, 2001. "Social Approval, Values, and AFDC: A Reexamination of the Illegitimacy Debate," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(3), pages 637-666, June.
    11. Edwin Fourrier-Nicolai, 2020. "How Family Transfers Crowd-out Social Assistance in Germany," AMSE Working Papers 2023, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    12. Miller, Robert A. & Sanders, Seth G., 1997. "Human capital development and welfare participation," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-43, June.
    13. Cox, Donald & Jakubson, George, 1995. "The connection between public transfers and private interfamily transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 129-167, May.
    14. John W. Graham, 1990. "Child Support And Mothers‘ Employment," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(1), pages 95-109, January.
    15. David Coady & César Martinelli & Susan W. Parker, 2013. "Information and Participation in Social Programs," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(1), pages 149-170.
    16. Brizmohun, Roshini & Duffy, Patricia A., 2016. "Do Personal Attitudes about Welfare Influence Food Stamp Participation?," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235698, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Laura Castell & Marc Gurgand & Clément Imbert & Todor Tochev, 2024. "Take-up of Social Benefits: Experimental Evidence from France," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-04720989, HAL.
    18. David W. Emmons & Eva Madly & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2005. "Refundable Tax Credits for Health Insurance: The Sensitivity of Simulated Impacts to Assumed Behavior," Upjohn Working Papers 05-119, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    19. E. J. Bird, "undated". "Exploring the stigma of food stamps," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1097-96, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    20. Kurita, Kenichi & Hori, Nobuaki & Katafuchi, Yuya, 2019. "Model of endogenous welfare stigma: Statistical discrimination view," MPRA Paper 98299, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:8:y:1990:i:1:p:110-123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.