This paper uses state panel data to investigate changes in public assistance caseloads through the end of the AFDC program in 1996, with particular attention to the rapid increase in caseloads between 1990 and 1994. Previous research has focussed on total caseloads, with attention to economic...

This piece introduces "social organization theory" to the analysis of drug-law enforcement policy. Social organization theory was developed more than 50 years ago as an innovative attempt to explain criminal behavior. This theory should have revolutionized criminal law policy. Unfortunately, it...

This paper investigates the impact of financial incentive programs, which have become an increasingly common component of welfare programs. We review experimental evidence from several such programs. Financial incentive programs appear to increase work and raise income (lower poverty), but cost...

Over the past decade, public assistance caseloads have increased rapidly to an historical high point and then decreased with even greater speed to their lowest level in decades. Several recent papers have focused on the rise in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseloads in the...