TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grogger,Jeffrey
TI  - The Effects of Time Limits and Other Policy Changes on Welfare Use, Work, and Income Among Female-Headed Families
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8153
PY  - 2001
Y2  - March 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8153
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8153.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeffrey Grogger
Irving B. Harris Professor of Urban Policy
Harris School of Public Policy
University of Chicago
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL   60637
Tel: 773/542-3533
Fax: 773/702-0926
E-Mail: jgrogger@uchicago.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2001-07-01
AB  - Of all of the welfare reforms that were implemented during the 1990's, time limits may represent the single greatest break from past policy. This paper expands on what is known about this important welfare reform measure by exploiting the predictions from Grogger and Michalopoulos (1999) to estimate the effects of time limits on welfare use, employment, labor supply, earnings, and income among female-headed families. Results based on data from the March Current Population Survey suggest that time limits have had important effects on welfare use and work, accounting for about one-eighth of the decline in welfare use and about 7 percent of the rise in employment since 1993. They have had no significant effect on earnings or income, however. The analysis also shows that the collective effects of other reforms have had important impacts on employment and labor supply. Furthermore, it identifies the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as a particularly important contributor to both the recent decrease in welfare use and the recent increase in employment, labor supply, and earnings.
ER  -