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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Trends In The Happiness Of Single Mothers: Evidence From The General Social Survey, John Ifcher, Homa Zarghamee
Trends In The Happiness Of Single Mothers: Evidence From The General Social Survey, John Ifcher, Homa Zarghamee
Economics
We study the subjective well being (SWB) of single mothers from 1972 to 2008 using data from the General Social Survey. While past literature has examined the outcomes of single mothers, an investigation of SWB is warranted, since it has been shown that there are potentially large slippages between economic indicators and SWB. Our results indicate that (i) single mothers report being significantly less happy than non-single-mothers, and (ii) this "happiness gap" shrank between 1972 and 2008.
The Happiness Of Single Mothers After Welfare Reform, John Ifcher
The Happiness Of Single Mothers After Welfare Reform, John Ifcher
Economics
U.S. welfare and tax policies targeting single mothers were transformed over a decade ago. What was the impact on single mothers' happiness? Using data from the General Social Survey, difference in difference estimators are calculated. The results appear to indicate that the package of welfare and tax policy changes increased happiness. The results are largely consistent across three comparison groups and robust to various specification checks. This research nicely complements the literature by examining the impact of the welfare and tax policy changes on a novel outcome measure, self-reported happiness.
General Assistance Recipients And Welfare-To-Work Programs: Evidence From New York City, John Ifcher
General Assistance Recipients And Welfare-To-Work Programs: Evidence From New York City, John Ifcher
Economics
General Assistance (GA) programs are virtually unstudied. Yet, GA programs serve an economically vulnerable, non-trivial population that should be of interest. To begin to address this shortcoming, two welfare-to-work programs, in which GA recipients participated, are studied. Using a quasi-experimental approach, the effect of each program on welfare use and employment is estimated. The results indicate that each program significantly increased welfare exits and that the second program significantly increased employment (employment data was unavailable for the first program).
Identifying The Effect Of A Welfare-To-Work Program Using Capacity Constraint: A New York City Quasi-Experinmet, John Ifcher
Identifying The Effect Of A Welfare-To-Work Program Using Capacity Constraint: A New York City Quasi-Experinmet, John Ifcher
Economics
In 1999 general assistance recipients in New York City were required to participate in a job training and outplacement assistance program. Initially, recipients were enrolled in ‘waves’ due to capacity constraints. The program’s impact is identified using a quasiexperiment in which selectees are compared to concomitantly eligible non-selectees. Selectees are 15 percentage points more likely to start a job and 10 percentage points more likely to exit welfare than are non-selectees. This methodology is important since random-assignment experiments can be costly and difficult to implement. Further, experiments are not impervious to criticism; this procedure addresses three of five known shortcomings.