This research investigates the effects of poverty in early adulthood on future earnings. While social scientists are beginning to amass a considerable literature on the effects of poverty on outcomes for children, few have investigated the damage that impoverishment may do in early adulthood...

In this paper we sort through conflicting theory and evidence regarding the impacts of welfare reform on children’s well-being and development. <p>Our conclusions regarding likely child impacts depend crucially on the ages of the children studied. In the case of elementary-school children, the...</p>

A downturn in the economy is inevitable — at some point, policy makers at the federal, state and local level will be faced with decisions about how to sustain a work-based assistance system when jobs are less readily available. With a fixed level of funding states and localities will be faced...

In recent years, we have dramatically changed the character of programs that provide income and in-kind benefits to single mothers. These changes have had large effects on rates of employment and welfare receipt. Despite these changes, there has been little systematic evaluation of the...

Can public programs effectively reduce the number of births to women on public assistance? In this paper, I examine the provision of family planning services to welfare recipients through the Medicaid program. Previous studies of publicly-funded family planning services in the U.S. have produced...

Transitory fluctuations in earnings have adverse consequences for the poor because of limited ability to smooth consumption. This paper investigates job instability and its consequences on earnings and income using 5 SIPP panels spanning 1983-1995. The paper discusses results for married men,...

". . . that the labor force status of an individual will be affected by his health is an unassailable proposition [because] a priori reasoning and casual observation tell us it must be so, not because there is a mass of supporting evidence." (Bowen and Finegan, 1969)<p> "Despite the near universal...</p>