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Marital Dissolution and Public Assistance Payments: Variations among American States
Author(s) -
Moles Oliver C.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1976.tb02481.x
Subject(s) - payment , incentive , demographic economics , welfare , marital status , census , race (biology) , demography , economics , sociology , population , market economy , microeconomics , gender studies , finance
Public assistance and decennial census data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia are used to examine whether welfare payments provide an incentive for mothers with minor children to separate from their husbands. There is little support for the hypothesis in 1960, but in 1970 states with higher payments also had higher ratios of separated to married mothers in all race by region subpopulations. An analysis of 1960–1970 changes in payments and separation ratios produced similar support. Several possible explanations and the relation to other studies which arrived at different results are discussed.