Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government—Fighting Poverty: Lessons from Recent U.S. History | Zendy

Rebecca M. Blank | Zendy

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Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government—Fighting Poverty: Lessons from Recent U.S. History

Author(s) -

Rebecca M. Blank

Publication year - 2000

Publication title -

the journal of economic perspectives

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 9.614

H-Index - 196

eISSN - 1944-7965

pISSN - 0895-3309

DOI - 10.1257/jep.14.2.3

Subject(s) - poverty , welfare reform , economics , fell , welfare , poverty rate , government (linguistics) , wage , public assistance , labour economics , work (physics) , demographic economics , economic growth , mechanical engineering , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , engineering , market economy , biology

Welfare reform efforts in the 1990s aimed at reducing welfare dependence and moving women into work. Public assistance use fell and labor force participation among mothers rose at a stunning rate over the decade. Poverty declined, but at a slower rate. These changes are causally related to the strong macroeconomy, welfare reform efforts, and other policy changes, especially the EITC and minimum wage expansions. This paper concludes that all of these effects reinforced each other, producing very large behavioral changes. It is too early to predict the effects of these changes on long-term family well-being.

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