TY  - JOUR
AU  - Blau,Francine D.
AU  - Kahn,Lawrence M.
AU  - Waldfogel,Jane
TI  - The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Single Motherhood and Headship of Young Women: Evidence from the Census
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9338
PY  - 2002
Y2  - November 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9338
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9338.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Francine D. Blau
ILR School
Cornell University
268 Ives Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853-3901
Tel: 607/255-4381
Fax: 607/255-4496
E-Mail: fdb4@cornell.edu

Jane Waldfogel
Columbia University
School of Social Work
1255 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY  10027
E-Mail: jw205@columbia.edu
AB  - This paper uses data from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 Censuses to investigate the impact of welfare benefits across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) on the incidence of single motherhood and headship for young women.  A contribution of the paper is the inclusion of both MSA fixed effects and MSA-specific time trends to account for fixed and trending unmeasured factors that could influence both welfare benefit levels and family formation.  In such a model, we find no effect of welfare benefits on single motherhood for whites or blacks, and a positive effect of welfare benefits on single headship only for blacks.
ER  -