Publication year: 2010
Source: Children and Youth Services Review, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 2 November 2010
Hyeok Chang, Kwon , Daniel R., Meyer
Early welfare reform research showed high rates of employment for TANF leavers. However, work-focused welfare may not be effective during an economic downturn. We investigate the employment of Wisconsin TANF leavers, contrasting outcomes among early leavers (1998) with those who left during the 2001 recession. We use data from administrative records on about 6,000 welfare leavers, tracking quarterly employment for three years after they left benefits. Separate panel data analyses of those exiting in two different time periods show that individual leavers are less likely to be employed when their local unemployment rate is high in the later cohort; no…