The two books reviewed here are part of a torrent of recently published research into the nature, condition and reform of the welfare state. On Worlds of Welfare (here, SVdB) issues from an interdepartmental research institute run by the Dutch government. One of its goals is to locate and evaluate the Dutch welfare state in a cross-national perspective. Its wider remit is to validate the mainst...

Recently published studies that investigate the effect of benefit cuts on the employment prospects of unemployed show that sanctions substantially increase the probability of an individual to get employed. This evidence suggests at first sight that benefit sanctions are an effective tool in the activation process of the unemployed and should be used more frequently by welfare agencies to enhanc...

Strong intergenerational correlations in various types of welfare use have fueled a long standing debate over whether welfare dependency in one generation causes welfare dependency in the next generation. Some claim a culture has developed in which welfare use reinforces itself through the family, because parents on welfare provide information about the program to their children, reduce the sti...

This paper investigates the extent to which the duration and the receipt of social assistance (SA) are linked between parents and children in Germany. Several related questions are addressed. Does parents’ SA duration increase the future welfare dependency of children? Given exposure of welfare at home, are daughters more likely to live on SA later on than sons? Are there any differences in the...

Economists explain welfare dependency of the unemployed and in-work poverty by the low labour market quality of the poor. Work can be made to pay by working family tax credits. But these might lower wages and price nonrecipients out of the market, widening the eligibility for the wage supplementation and raising social welfare bills. This was precisely the effect of the Speenhamland system of w...

We conducted a community-based, randomized control trial with intent-to-treat analyses of Promoting First Relationships (PFR) to improve parenting and toddler outcomes for toddlers in state dependency. Toddlers (10-24 months; N = 210) with a recent placement disruption were randomized to 10-week PFR or a comparison condition. Community agency providers were trained to use PFR in the interventio...

The goal of this study was to assess whether child welfare services were available and proximal in identified, predominantly Black and Hispanic zip code areas of three southern cities. GIS mapping of services contained in a state 2-1-1 community services data base revealed that there were no treatment services and/or no public transportation and/or lengthy public (bus) transportation times in 5...

A spate of recent reports on President Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform initiative, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (“PRA”), indicates that the new welfare regime appears to be working. Although results vary by state, welfare rolls have dropped dramatically as many former recipients have gone to work. It remains to be seen whether the welfare population is bette...

The author estimates the effect of the Family Independence Program PIP) on the economic self-sufficiency of welfare recipients in Washington state. He finds that, as designed, enrollment in employment and training activities increased under FIP. FIP had no impact, however, on employment rates and earnings, and it actually led to increases in welfare participation and welfare benefits. According...