In 1999 the UK government made major reforms to the system of child-contingent benefits, including the introduction of Working Families' Tax Credit and an increase in means-tested Income Support for families with children. Between 1999-2003 government spending per-child on these benefits rose by...

In this paper we provide evidence on how the UK government's welfare reforms since 1998 have affected the material well-being of children in low-income families. We examine changes in expenditure patterns and ownership of durable goods for low- and higher-income families between the pre-reform...

Relatively little is known about the impact of welfare reform on children's living arrangements, which was an important focus of reformers. We use data from the March CPS to examine this question. Our findings suggest three main conclusions. First, welfare reform in some cases has had large...

In general, the economic performance of European countries was disappointing in the 1990s. However, country differences increased, and in some European countries economic growth matched US rates. This paper uses a set of performance indicators to carve out a group of successful European...

Welfare was reformed significantly in 1996, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was expanded substantially during the last decade. In the wake of these events, welfare rolls have shrunk dramatically and employment among the poor has increased, leading many to conclude that these policies...

This paper discusses recent changes in the role of the German state in relation to welfare and housing and, to a lesser extent, recent state initiatives in tackling homelessness. The analysis leads to the conclusion that some of more radical changes apparent in other European countries are less...

I suggest in this essay that Barbara Bergmann's approach to the economics of women is characterized by six striking dimensions, or what I call 'commitments', namely: (1) a willingness to incorporate values into her analysis openly; (2) a commitment to applied economics - economic analysis that...

This paper responds to Karen Christopher's recent Feminist Economics paper that posits that welfare leavers did not benefit much financially during the Clinton-era economic boom. On the contrary, this paper finds that child poverty rates declined dramatically as did material hardships while the...

The Help for Working Parents Plan-developed by Dr. Heidi Hartmann and Dr. Barbara Bergmann in collaboration with the Economists' Policy Group for Women's Issues, which they co-chair - offers an innovative welfare reform program that encouragesjob holding, and sustains working parents and their...

While the Help for Working Parents (HWP) proposal represents a fundamental and costly change in the nation's safety net for poor families with children, it contains a variety of attributes that should give us pause. Its presumptions regarding the expectations for women's work should be made...