Marriage and Economic Incentives: Evidence from a Welfare Experiment
نویسندگان
چکیده
Can economic incentives be used to affect marriage behavior and slow the growth of single-parent families? This paper provides new evidence on the effects of welfare benefit incentives on the marital decisions of poor women. Exogenous variation in welfare program parameters arises from a randomized experiment carried out in California. Whereas previous studies have measured women’s responses to year-to-year changes in welfare benefit changes, I am able to measure responses over longer periods of time. The analysis recognizes that married women can receive AFDC benefits under some circumstances, and distinguishes between transitions into marriage and transitions out of marriage. I find that a regime of lower benefits and stronger work incentives encourages married aid recipients to stay married, but has little effect on the probability that single-parent aid recipients marry. The effects on married recipients become larger over time, suggesting that long-run effects may exist.
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