The authors assisted the World Bank in conducting an economic evaluation of the effectiveness of legal aid clinics for poor women in Ecuador. The legal aid clinics were a small part of a project to promote legal and judicial reform (LJR) in Ecuador, in turn part of a World Bank initiative to...

This Article offers new evidence on the determinants of U.S. unwed birth rates from 1975 to 1990. We show that higher illegitimacy rates are positively and significantly correlated with payments under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Our results are also consistent with...

As a result of the increasing divorce rate over the past decades, there is an increased need for settlements to divide marital property, to determine child custody and visitation, and to calculate the level of child support payments to be made by the noncustodial parent. Given the growing burden...

Using a semiparametric event study approach with a control group, we estimate the effect of motherhood on labor market outcomes in Germany, the child penalty. We further investigate how the 2007 parental benefits reform changed the child penalty while accounting for fertility effects. A large...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government issued stimulus checks and expanded the child tax credit. These pandemic payments varied by marital status and the number of children in the household and were substantial with some families receiving several thousand dollars. We exploit this...

The largest tax-based social welfare programs in the US limit their benefits to taxpayers with labor market income. Eliminating these work requirements would better target transfers to the neediest families but risks attenuating tax-based incentives to work. We study changes in labor force...

Focusing on Regulations 1408/71 and 883/2004, the article outlines the main problems with co-ordination exportability of family benefits in the EU. An important emphasis is put on the principle lex loci laboris as it had been interpreted by the Court of Justice, in light of the relevant...

I examine whether the family cap policy that reduces or eliminates incremental welfare benefits for additional births born to mothers already on welfare would affect both the quantity and quality of births in terms of birthweight. The evidence suggests that the family cap policy has not only...

This paper examines the extent to which differences in welfare generosity across states leads to interstate migration. Using microdata from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) between 1979 and 1992, we employ a quasi-experimental design that utilizes the categorical eligibility of...

Many previous studies have used sibling correlations to measure the effect of family background on earnings, income? and occupational status. This paper uses data on a sample of sisters to explore the importance of family background as a determinant of welfare program participation. The results...