In the 1990s, many states liberalized statutory rules regarding the tax treatment of earned and unearned income for welfare program eligibility and benefit levels. I use quality control data from the AFDC/TANF program over 1983–2002 to document changes in the corresponding effective tax rates...

We use state-level monthly panel data to assess the relative contributions of the macroeconomy and welfare reform in accounting for the 1993-96 decline in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseloads. Our results suggest that the decline in per capita AFDC caseloads is attributable...

We examine the importance of possible nonrandom attrition to an econometric model of life cycle labor supply using both a Wald test comparing attriters to nonattriters and variable addition tests based on formal models of attrition. Estimates using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics show that...

We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the effect of new saving incentives implemented as part of the 1996 welfare reform on household saving. Economic theory predicts that loosening asset limits will increase total savings for households with a large ex-ante probability...