Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare Dependency and Increase Employment?

Do welfare dependent neighbors matter for individual welfare dependency ?

This paper investigates neighborhood peer eff ects on individual welfare using a combined IV and control function approach. The empirical analysis is based on panel data for the years 2007-2010 constructed by enriching the geo-referenced version of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) with aggregated zip code level-information. The results suggest that individual welfare use is positively co...

Substance abuse and employment among welfare mothers: from welfare to work and back again?

We have very little research on how substance use impacts employment among welfare mothers. But welfare reform's emphasis on moving aid recipients into the workforce has brought this issue to the fore. Using Cox proportional hazard and logistic regression in a longitudinal study of California welfare mothers in 2001-2003, we examine how substance use impacts the ability to move from welfare to ...

Do Online Social Networks Increase Welfare?

We consider a strategic online social network that controls information flows between agents in a social learning setting. Agents on the network select among products of competing firms of unknown quality. The network sells advertising to firms. We consider display advertising, which is standard firm-to-consumer advertising, and social advertising, in which agents who purchased that firm’s prod...

When do fat taxes increase consumer welfare?

Previous analyses of fat taxes have generally worked within an empirical framework in which it is difficult to determine whether consumers benefit from the policy. This note outlines on simple means to determine whether consumers benefit from a fat tax by comparing the ratio of expenditures on the taxed good to the weight effect of the tax against the individual's willingness to pay for a one-p...

Do Energy Efficiency Standards Increase Social Welfare ?