Working Paper: NBER ID: w9338
Authors: Francine D. Blau; Lawrence M. Kahn; Jane Waldfogel
Abstract: This paper uses data from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 Censuses to investigate the impact of welfare benefits across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) on the incidence of single motherhood and headship for young women. A contribution of the paper is the inclusion of both MSA fixed effects and MSA-specific time trends to account for fixed and trending unmeasured factors that could influence both welfare benefit levels and family formation. In such a model, we find no effect of welfare benefits on single motherhood for whites or blacks, and a positive effect of welfare benefits on single headship only for blacks.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I3; J1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Welfare benefits (I38) | Single headship for black women (J12) |
| Welfare benefits (I38) | Single motherhood for black women (J12) |
| Welfare benefits (I38) | Single motherhood for white women (J12) |
| Welfare benefits (I38) | Family formation outcomes (J12) |
| Initial correlations of welfare benefits and family formation outcomes (J12) | Omitted variable bias (C20) |
| Welfare changes (I38) | Living arrangements (R21) |