What Mean Impacts Miss: Distributional Effects of Welfare Reform Experiments / Marianne Bitler, Jonah Gelbach, Hilary Hoynes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bitler, Marianne.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Gelbach, Jonah B.

Hoynes, Hilary Williamson.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w10121.

NBER working paper series no. w10121

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

What Mean Impacts Miss

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2003.

Summary:

Labor supply theory predicts systematic heterogeneity in the impact of recent welfare reforms on earnings, transfers, and income. Yet most welfare reform research focuses on mean impacts. We investigate the importance of heterogeneity using random-assignment data from Connecticut's Jobs First waiver features key elements of post-1996 welfare programs. Estimated quantile treatment effects exhibit the substantial heterogeneity predicted by labor supply theory. Thus mean impacts miss a great deal. Looking separately at dropouts and other women does not improve the performance of mean impacts. Evaluating Jobs First relative to AFDC using a class of social welfare functions, we find that Jobs First's performance depends on the degree of inequality aversion, the relative valuation of earnings and transfers, and whether one accounts for Jobs First's greater costs. We conclude that welfare reform's effects are likely both more varied and more extensive than has been recognized.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2003.