TY  - JOUR
AU  - Witte,Ann Dryden
AU  - Queralt,Magaly
AU  - Chipty,Tasneem
AU  - Griesinger,Harriet
TI  - Unintended Consequences?  Welfare Reform and the Working Poor
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6798
PY  - 1998
Y2  - November 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6798
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6798.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ann Dryden Witte
500 SE Mizner Blvd., # A904
Boca Raton, FL 33432
Tel: 561 361 4398
E-Mail: awitte@wellesley.edu

Magaly Queralt
E-Mail: mqueralt@wellesley.edu

Tasneem Chipty
CRA International
John Hancock Tower
200 Clarendon St, T-33
Boston, MA  02116
Tel: 617-425-3315
Fax: 617-425-3132
E-Mail: tchipty@crai.com
AB  - We have used a unique longitudinal database that incorporates information from diverse administrative and research sources to examine the impact of the early stages of welfare reform on poor working families who do not receive cash assistance. Our data are for 2791 working poor families from March 1996 through February 1997.  Using a number of different estimation techniques, we find that the impact of the simultaneous October 1996 implementation of welfare reform and a federal minimum wage increase was to lower the earnings of the working poor families in our sample by approximately 6%. We find that increases in funding for Child Care Subsidies associated with welfare reform led to a significant increase in earnings. On net, the increase in Child Care Subsidies and the decrease in earnings because of the October 1996 changes approximately cancel out, with the representative family in our sample experiencing an estimated monthly earnings change of between -$18 and $68, with an earnings gain of $25 being most likely.
ER  -