The Impact of Afdc on Young Women's Childbearing

This research seeks to reevaluate the relationship between AFDC and fertility by focusing on births to women through the age of twenty-three using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Using discrete time hazard models, I examine the impact of AFDC on births directly associated with AFDC, on out-of-wedlock births, and on all births. I also examine the importance of AFDC on subsequent births--births to women who already have a child. I find that AFDC generosity has very modest pro-natalist effects, at best, on first births and virtually no effect on subsequent births. Furthermore, exposure to AFDC does not encourage future childbearing, although mothers who received AFDC in the past are more likely to receive AFDC upon having a second child. The Impact of AFDC on Young Women's Childbearing Decisions