An Overlooked Impact of Welfare Reform: The Effect on General Assistance Recipients: Evidence from Two Welfare-to-Work Programs in New York City

32 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2008

See all articles by John Ifcher

John Ifcher

Santa Clara University - Leavey School of Business - Economics Department

Date Written: December 2007

Abstract

To date very little is known regarding General Assistance (GA) recipients' response to welfare reform. In New York City, GA recipients were required to participate in a workfare and a welfare-to-work program. Recipients were initially enrolled in each program in 'waves' due to program capacity constraints. I identify the effect of the programs using a quasi-experiment in which enrollees are compared to concomitantly eligible, non-enrolled recipients. I find that each program increased welfare exits and that the latter program also increased employment. The magnitude of these effects is similar to the effect that similar programs have on family assistance recipients.

Keywords: welfare reform, general assistance, welfare-to-work, quasi-experiment

Suggested Citation

Ifcher, John, An Overlooked Impact of Welfare Reform: The Effect on General Assistance Recipients: Evidence from Two Welfare-to-Work Programs in New York City (December 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1096613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1096613

John Ifcher (Contact Author)

Santa Clara University - Leavey School of Business - Economics Department ( email )

500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA California 95053
United States

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