TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kaushal,Neeraj
AU  - Gao,Qin
AU  - Waldfogel,Jane
TI  - Welfare Reform and Family Expenditures: How are Single Mothers Adapting to the New Welfare and Work Regime?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12624
PY  - 2006
Y2  - October 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12624
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12624.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Neeraj Kaushal
Columbia University
School of Social Work
1255 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/851-2235
Fax: 212/851-2204
E-Mail: nk464@columbia.edu

Qin Gao
Fordham University 
Graduate School of Social Service
113 West 60th Street
New York, New York-10023
Tel: 212-636-6638
Fax: 212-636-7876
E-Mail: aqigao@fordham.edu

Jane Waldfogel
Columbia University
School of Social Work
1255 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY  10027
E-Mail: jw205@columbia.edu
AB  - We study the effect of welfare reform, broadly defined to include social policy changes in the 1990s, on the material well-being and expenditure patterns of poor single-mother families.  Our research suggests that welfare reform did not affect total expenditures in households headed by low-educated single mothers.  However, patterns of expenditure did change.  We find strong evidence that the policy was associated with an increase in spending on transportation and food away from home, and some evidence of an increase in spending on adult clothing and footwear.  In contrast, we find no statistically significant changes in expenditures on childcare or learning and enrichment activities.   This pattern of results suggests that welfare reform has shifted family expenditures towards items that facilitate work outside the home, but, at least so far, has not allowed families to catch up with more advantaged families in terms of their expenditures on learning and enrichment items.
ER  -