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Labor Force and Welfare Program Participation: The Effects of Welfare
Author(s) -
Gensler Howard J.,
Walls W. David
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1997.tb03463.x
Subject(s) - welfare , economics , survey of income and program participation , multivariate probit model , estimation , bivariate analysis , population , probit model , survey data collection , demographic economics , probit , labour economics , current population survey , affect (linguistics) , public economics , econometrics , statistics , psychology , demography , mathematics , management , communication , sociology , market economy
A bstract This research examines the quantitative impacts of welfare program characteristics and individual characteristics on both the labor force and welfare participation decisions of low‐income females with children . The participation decisions are estimated jointly as a bivariate probit model using data derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey for the years 1979 to 1990, inclusive. These data allow the estimation of the precise behavioral impacts of welfare. The main empirical findings are that effective welfare guarantee levels and the effective welfare tax rate on unearned income both significantly affect the probability of labor force and welfare program participation, but that such impacts are very small in magnitude. Implications for policy are discussed.