The big drop .in both child poverty and poverty in general was after the 1996 welfare reforms.
via Chart Book: The War on Poverty at 50, Section 1 | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The War on Poverty at 50
16 May 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: 1996 US welfare reforms, child poverty, family poverty, war on poverty
The main drivers of child poverty
15 May 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of love and marriage, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, population economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, economics of the family, family poverty, marriage and divorce, single mothers, single parents
CHART: Black Illegitimacy Rate Went from < 20% in 1950 to 75.2% in 2010. Has Obama ever mentioned that? http://t.co/1UBUQ5aLRi—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) May 12, 2015
Quotation of the Day from Charles Murray http://t.co/Y8W6xGjRPO—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) May 12, 2015
Black and Hispanic poverty dropped by a third after the 1996 US welfare reforms
13 May 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: 1996 welfare reforms, child poverty, family poverty, welfare state
Child poverty and single parenthood
13 May 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, economics of marriage, family poverty, marriage and divorce, single mothers, single parents, welfare reform
Over half of all births to young adults in the U.S. now occur outside of marriage. bit.ly/1qONO10 http://t.co/KXl4sFd122—
Isabel Sawhill (@isawhill) September 17, 2014
Despite forgoing #marriage, young Americans are not forgoing parenthood. bit.ly/1sMG2bJ http://t.co/1aSELaJlfg—
Isabel Sawhill (@isawhill) October 31, 2014
Despite forgoing #marriage, young Americans are not forgoing #parenthood. bit.ly/1xLa1AJ http://t.co/fetnPAiCPG—
Isabel Sawhill (@isawhill) October 13, 2014
Almost 60% of births to women with only a high school degree occur out of wedlock. bit.ly/1sMG2bJ http://t.co/zomTFjZwA2—
Isabel Sawhill (@isawhill) October 14, 2014
Further evidence of the success of the 1996 US welfare reforms and a lack of wage stagnation
03 May 2015 1 Comment
in economic growth, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, welfare reform Tags: middle-class wage stagnation, top 1%, US welfare reforms, wage stagnation
http://t.co/l7NzR1byNF—
EPI Chart Bot (@epichartbot) April 27, 2015
http://t.co/VZTp2A0H8n—
EPI Chart Bot (@epichartbot) April 05, 2015
Disability benefit applications are counter cyclical and unaffected by improving health standards and rising life expectancy
29 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in health and safety, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, welfare reform Tags: disability benefits
How to argue for welfare reform when sincerely arguing against the 1996 US Federal welfare reforms
28 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: 1996 US welfare reforms, female labour supply, labour demographics, welfare state
The share of single mothers without a high school degree with earnings rose from 49 percent to 64 percent between 1995 and 2000 but has since fallen or remained constant almost every year since then. At 55 percent, it’s now just slightly above its level in 1997, the first full year of welfare reform (see first graph).
TANF now serves only 25 of every 100 families with children that live below the poverty line, down from AFDC’s 68 of every 100 such families before the welfare law
Over the last 18 years, the national TANF average monthly caseload has fallen by almost two-thirds — from 4.7 million families in 1996 to 1.7 million families in 2013 — even as poverty and deep poverty have worsened.
The number of families with children in poverty hit a low of 5.2 million in 2000, but has since increased to more than 7 million. Similarly, the number of families with children in deep poverty (with incomes below half of the poverty line) hit a low of about 2 million in 2000, but is now above 3 million.
The employment situation for never-married mothers with a high school or less education — the group of mothers most affected by welfare reform — has changed dramatically over the last several decades.
In the early 1990’s, when states first made major changes to their cash welfare programs, only about half of these mothers worked.
Importantly, there was a very large employment gap between the share of these never-married mothers and single women without children with similar levels of education, suggesting that there was substantial room for these never-married mothers to increase their participation in the labour force.
By 2000, the employment gap between these two groups of women closed, and it has remained so. But in the years since, the employment rate for both groups has fallen considerably.
The employment rate for never-married mothers is now about the same as when welfare reform was enacted 18 years ago. This suggests that the economy and low education levels are now the causes of limited employment among never-married mothers — not the availability of public benefits or anything particular to never-married mothers.
The Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, who hail clearly from the Left of American politics, scrupulously documented the following:
- Big gains in the employment of single mothers until a setback in the Great Recession but is still much better than in 1996;
- Welfare dependency dropped by two thirds;
- Despite this two third drop in welfare dependency, and earnest predictions of acute poverty and deprivation made in 1996, the number of families in deep poverty has not changed, and the number of families in poverty fell significantly and only rose again with the Great Recession; and
- There was a dramatic increase in the percentage of never married mothers in employment, so much so that there is no difference in the employment rate of single women with no children and never married mothers!
Welfare dependency down by two thirds, employment of never married mothers up to levels no one thought possible, family poverty down, and economic independence is much more widespread and all because of the 1996 US Federal welfare reforms. That sounds like success to me – a great success.
via Chart Book: TANF at 18 | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Fact checking Gwyneth Paltrow on $29 of food stamps for a week
26 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, politics - USA, welfare reform Tags: food stamps, Gwyneth Paltrow, Left-wing hypocrisy, welfare state
Tony Atkinson’s ‘Inequality – What Can Be Done?’
24 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, labour economics, minimum wage, Public Choice, Rawls and Nozick, welfare reform Tags: guaranteed minimum income, Leftover Left
I find proposal number 3 to target reducing unemployment rather perplexing because Atkinson in proposal number 5 wants to increase the minimum wage to the living wage, which will increase unemployment. He proposes a guaranteed child income, but he doesn’t appear to make proposals for a guaranteed family minimum income. A guaranteed family minimum income or an increase in the earned income tax credit, to use the American terminology, would increase the incomes of the low paid without threatening their job through a minimum wage increase.
Out Today: Tony Atkinson's new book 'Inequality – What Can Be Done?'
Here are his 14 proposals to reduce inequality: http://t.co/RPXmEBBFCR—
Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) April 23, 2015
The changing American family
24 Apr 2015 3 Comments
in economics of love and marriage, gender, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: family demographics, single parents
via Was Moynihan Right? What happens to the children of unmarried mothers : Education Next
The war on poverty at age 50: What US social programs worked and which failed? – Chris Blattman
23 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, welfare reform
Via The war on poverty at age 50: What US social programs worked and which failed? – Chris Blattman.
Stay-at-home moms are poorer, less educated than working moms
18 Apr 2015 4 Comments
in gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, unemployment, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, demographics, family, single parents
Why are welfare beneficiaries so allergic to contact with case managers?
17 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, welfare reform
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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