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Title: Determinants of Welfare Caseload Decline
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Rector, Robert
Youssef, Sarah E.
Determinants of Welfare Caseload Decline
Report #99-04, Center for Data Analysis. Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation, May 11, 1999.
Also: http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/1999/pdf/cda99-04.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: The Heritage Foundation
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Economic Changes/Recession; Employment; I.Q.; Parents, Single; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper argues that welfare reform, not strong economic growth, has produced declining welfare caseloads and that the more stringent the sanctioning practices, the greater the declines. Hill and O'Neil's studies of National Longitudinal Survey data are cited to buttress claims that welfare is more detrimental to children than poverty. The first study of NLSY79 data cited found that children of welfare recipients were 50% more likely to have a child out of wedlock. The second study of NLSY79 and Children of the NLSY79 data found that the longer a child spends in the welfare system, the lower his or her IQ compared with children who are identical in race, income, and other social and economic factors. Specifically, "O'Neill and Hill found that those who had spent at least two months of each year, since birth, on AFDC had cognitive abilities 20 percent below the cognitive abilities of those who had received no welfare--even after holding constant such variables as family income, race, and parental IQ."
Bibliography Citation
Rector, Robert and Sarah E. Youssef. Determinants of Welfare Caseload Decline. Report #99-04, Center for Data Analysis. Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation, May 11, 1999..