Research questions regarding how, for whom, and where a treatment achieves its effect on an outcome have become increasingly valued in substantive research. Such questions can be answered by causal moderated mediation analysis, which assesses the heterogeneity of the mediation mechanism underlying the treatment effect across individual and…

Public spending on children aims to support their healthy development, helping them fulfill their human potential. As such, federal spending on children is an investment in the nation's future. To inform policymakers, children's advocates, and the general public about how public funds are spent on children, this 12th edition of the annual…

We estimate the effect of welfare reform on the intergenerational transmission of welfare participation and related economic outcomes using a long panel of mother-daughter pairs over the survey period 1968-2013 in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Because states implemented welfare reform at different times starting in 1992, the cross-state…

Public spending on children by federal, state, and local governments is an investment in the nation's future because it supports children's healthy development, helping them fulfill their potential. To help interested stakeholders assess the government's investment in children, this 11th edition of the annual "Kids' Share" report…

"Kids' Share 2016: Federal Expenditures on Children through 2015," a 10th annual report, looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Federal spending on children has remained fairly flat over the past four years, in real dollars. Broader budgetary forces will restrict spending on children over the next 10…

The first two chapters of my dissertation paper detail the role of work-inducing welfare policies on single mother's human capital formation. These chapters focus on the two most important work-inducing policies that have transformed the welfare program in the United States from an out-work to an in-work assistance program: (1) welfare reform in…

Despite the claimed success of the 1996 Welfare Reform, little research using multivariate regression has examined changes in multiple public safety-net programs. Thus, we still do not know whether public safety-net programs for the poor have shrunk or increased nationwide, along with the sharp declines in cash assistance. Using state-level data…

"Kids' Share 2012: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2011," a sixth annual report, looks comprehensively at trends over the past 50 years in federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Key findings suggest that the size and composition of expenditures on children have changed considerably, but children have not…

The budget for the U.S. Department of Labor for Fiscal Year 2010 includes a total of $45 million to support and study transitional jobs. This paper describes the origins of the transitional jobs models that are operating today, reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of this approach and other subsidized employment models, and offers some…

This report from the General Accounting Office reviews selected aspects of Wisconsin's Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Chapter 1 describes AFDC and specifies the scope of the program review. In Chapter 2 the potential for increasing child support collections from parents is explored. Actions which could increase collections…

This report summarizes discussions from two round-table seminars exploring federal programs that affect children and families. Ideas presented in this report are organized around five topics: (1) symptoms of fragmented federal programs for children and families; (2) why coordinated services for children and families are so rare; (3) what Congress…

The San Diego (California) Saturation Work Initiative Model (SWIM) was part of the Social Security Administration's two-site demonstration of saturation work programs in an urban area. The multicomponent program operated from July 1985 until late 1987, when it was replaced by a new statewide initiative called the Greater Avenues for Independence…

There have been numerous attempts over the past seven years to replace the federally-funded Work Incentive Program (WIN) with another type of work program. As a result of increased flexibility, decreased federal funds, and continuing debate about welfare reform, there is now considerable variability among states in the types of employment and…

This country has long debated the question of how to design the welfare system, particularly the federally supported Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program which provides cash assistance to families headed primarily by female single parents. A pressing issue is whether welfare programs should continue to be broad entitlements or…

Massachusetts' Employment and Training (ET) Choices Program--a work-incentive demonstration--assumes that recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) would choose work over welfare if given genuine opportunities for economic improvement. Models for estimating caseload without the ET Program indicate that the program had only…