IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v15y1980i3p301-334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Jobs, Cash Transfers and Marital Instability: A Review and Synthesis of the Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • John H. Bishop

Abstract

Expanding welfare benefits to include two-parent families has long been considered an option for a public policy designed to strengthen family units. The negative income tax experiments employed this option, and it was found that the experimental group experienced 50 percent higher marital instability than the control group that was eligible for the current set of income-maintenance programs-AFDC and Food Stamps. Marital instability increased even when an experimental plan was no more generous than AFDC for the splitting wife. The conclusion must be either that because of differences in information, stigma, or transaction costs, the experiments produced more powerful independence effects than an equivalent amount of AFDC, or that receiving NIT payments somehow reduced the attractiveness of the married state by calling into question the success of the husband as provider. These findings suggest that, if strengthening marriages is a public-policy objective, two-parent families would be better aided by wage subsidies that reduce the unemployment of family heads and raise the earnings of the family's working members.

Suggested Citation

  • John H. Bishop, 1980. "Jobs, Cash Transfers and Marital Instability: A Review and Synthesis of the Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(3), pages 301-334.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:15:y:1980:i:3:p:301-334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/145286
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nelissen, Jan H. M. & Van Den Akker, Piet A. M., 1988. "Are demographic developments influenced by social security?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 81-114, March.
    2. Greg J. Duncan & Saul U. Hoffman, 1986. "Welfare Dynamics and the Nature of Need," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 6(1), pages 31-54, Spring/Su.
    3. Robert Plotnick, 1984. "The Redistributive Impact of Cash Transfers," Public Finance Review, , vol. 12(1), pages 27-50, January.
    4. Starkey, James L., 1996. "Race differences in the effect of unemployment on marital instability: A socioeconomic analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 683-720.
    5. R. A. Moffitt & R. Reville & A. E. Winkler, "undated". "Beyond single mothers: Cohabition, marriage, and the U.S. welfare system," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1068-95, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    6. Gustavo J. Bobonis, 2011. "The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Marriage and Divorce," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 281-312.
    7. Bernard Fortin, 1984. "La securite du revenu au Quebec: un bilan," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 10(4), pages 446-458, December.
    8. A. E. Winkler, "undated". "AFDC-UP, two-parent families, and the Family Support Act of 1988: Evidence from the 1990 CPS and the 1987 NSFH," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1013-93, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    9. Gauthier, A.H., 1995. "Policies and the division of labour within families : The neglected link," WORC Paper 95.04.006/6, Tilburg University, Work and Organization Research Centre.
    10. Psacharopoulos, George & Tzannatos, Zafiris, 1992. "Latin American women's earnings and participation in the labor force," Policy Research Working Paper Series 856, The World Bank.
    11. Williamson Hoyne, Hilary, 1997. "Does welfare play any role in female headship decisions?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 89-117, August.
    12. Anne E. Winkler, 1995. "Does AFDC-up encourage two-parent families?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(1), pages 4-24.
    13. H. W. Hoynes, "undated". "Does welfare play any role in female headship decisions?," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1078-95, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:15:y:1980:i:3:p:301-334. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.