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Title: The Dynamics of Welfare and Work: Exploring The Process By Which Women Work Their Way Off Welfare
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Pavetti, Ladonna Ann
The Dynamics of Welfare and Work: Exploring The Process By Which Women Work Their Way Off Welfare
Ph.D. Dissertation, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, May, 1993
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); High School Completion/Graduates; High School Dropouts; Mothers, Income; Parents, Single; Skills; Welfare; Women's Studies; Work Experience; Work Reentry

In this research, I use quantitative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and qualitative data from extensive interviews with working and non-working low-income single mothers in the Boston area to conduct an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of welfare and work. I find that, contrary to popular belief, many women on welfare are quite willing to work. However, work provides a permanent exit from welfare for a relatively small percentage of women who ever enter the welfare system. When using monthly data, I find that work is the most common reason why women leave the welfare rolls, accounting for 45 percent of all exits from welfare. The majority of these exits occur rapidly--60 percent of women who leave welfare for work do so within a year after beginning a spell of welfare. However, many of these exits end just as quickly as they begin. About 40 percent of all women who leave welfare for work return to welfare within the first year after leaving. By the end of five years, two-thirds of all women who leave welfare for work will have returned to the welfare system. When I examine the experiences of a beginning cohort of recipients and account for multiple spells of welfare receipt, I find that only about 30 percent of women will leave welfare for a work exit that lasts for two years or longer by the end of the five-year period beginning with their initial welfare receipt. Another 30 percent manage to leave welfare for a relatively permanent exit through means other than work. The remaining 40 percent never leave the welfare rolls or leave only for short periods of time and then return. Many of the women who stay on welfare for long periods of time appear to do so because their labor market prospects are so grim. These women have a very poor mastery of basic skills as measured by the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT); fewer than half complete high school. In addition, very few enter the welfare system with any recent work experience. Copyright Dissertation Abstracts.
Bibliography Citation
Pavetti, Ladonna Ann. The Dynamics of Welfare and Work: Exploring The Process By Which Women Work Their Way Off Welfare. Ph.D. Dissertation, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, May, 1993.