Evaluation of Rhode Island's Family Independence Program: May 1996 - April 2000

Wellesley College Working Paper No. 2001-09

51 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2001

See all articles by Ann Dryden Witte

Ann Dryden Witte

Wellesley College - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Magaly Queralt

Wellesley Child Care Research Partnership

Helen Tauchen

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: November 2001

Abstract

We assess the impact of Rhode Island's Family Independence Program (FIP)on the employment and earnings from the Unemployment Insurance program. Our data are for all-female-headed households receiving Rhode Island cash assistance during the period May 1996 to April 2000. In all we have observations on 29,253 families for an average of 16.6 quarters. We estimate our models using a number of techniques and find that the major impact of FIP was to increase the likelihood that current and former cash assistance recipients would work. Our best estimate is that the impact of the many changes associated with FIP was to increase the likelihood of work by about 10%. Estimates also indicate that FIP increased the quarterly earnings of current and former cash assistance recipients. However, the estimated increase in quarterly earnings due to FIP was relatively modest (i.e., about $200 per quarter). During the study, earnings increased substantially (i.e., from a little over $1,000 per quarter to over $2,500 per quarter), but our results indicate that most of this increase was due to increases in the Rhode Island minimum wage, not to FIP.

Keywords: Welfare Reform, Child Care, Minimum Wage, Employment, and Earnings

JEL Classification: 138, H40, J22, I20

Suggested Citation

Dryden Witte, Ann and Queralt, Magaly and Tauchen, Helen V., Evaluation of Rhode Island's Family Independence Program: May 1996 - April 2000 (November 2001). Wellesley College Working Paper No. 2001-09, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=290143 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.290143

Ann Dryden Witte (Contact Author)

Wellesley College - Department of Economics ( email )

106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02181
United States
781-283-2163 (Phone)
781-283-2177 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Magaly Queralt

Wellesley Child Care Research Partnership ( email )

Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA 02481
United States

Helen V. Tauchen

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Department of Economics ( email )

Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States
919-966-2384 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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