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Title: Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Adolescent Social Behaviors
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Dave, Dhaval Corman, Hope Kalil, Ariel Schwartz-Soicher, Ofira Reichman, Nancy |
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Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Adolescent Social Behaviors NBER Working Paper No. 25527, National Bureau of Economic Research, February 2019. Also: https://www.nber.org/papers/w25527 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Geocoded Data; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Maternal Employment; State-Level Data/Policy; Substance Use; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Welfare This study exploits variations in the timing of welfare reform implementation in the U.S. in the 1990s to identify plausibly causal effects of welfare reform on a range of social behaviors of the next generation as they transition to adulthood. We focus on behaviors that are important for socioeconomic and health trajectories, estimate effects by gender, and explore potentially mediating factors. Welfare reform had no favorable effects on any of the youth behaviors examined and led to decreased volunteering among girls, increases in skipping school, damaging property, and fighting among boys, and increases in smoking and drug use among both boys and girls, with larger effects for boys (e.g., -6% for boys compared to 4% for girls for any substance use). Maternal employment, supervision, and child's employment explain little of the effects. Overall, the intergenerational effects of welfare reform on adolescent behaviors were unfavorable, particularly for boys, and do not support longstanding arguments that limiting cash assistance leads to responsible behavior in the next generation. As such, the favorable effects of welfare reform for women may have come at a cost to the next generation, particularly to boys who have been falling behind girls in high school completion for decades. |
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Bibliography Citation
Dave, Dhaval, Hope Corman, Ariel Kalil, Ofira Schwartz-Soicher and Nancy Reichman. "Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Adolescent Social Behaviors." NBER Working Paper No. 25527, National Bureau of Economic Research, February 2019. |