The Fragile Families study: social policies and labor markets in seven cities

An analysis of the welfare, child support, and labor market environments in the first seven Fragile Families cities confirms that, as intended, these cities represent the extremes in terms of their social policies and labor markets. Studying families in cities with extreme environments—generous or stingy welfare policies, strict or lenient child support enforcement, tight or slack labor markets—will allow us to better understand how policies and labor markets interact to affect the living arrangements and wellbeing of families. Based on our theoretical framework, we expect to find more marriage and cohabitation in cities with stingy welfare benefits and policies, strict child support enforcement, and strong labor markets. In contrast, we expect less marriage and cohabitation in cities with generous and accessible welfare benefits, weak child support enforcement, and weak labor markets. In future papers, Fragile Families data in twenty cities will be brought to bear on these predictions.     

WELFARE IMPACT OF A BAN ON CHILD LABOR

This article presents a new rationale for imposing restrictions on child labor. In a standard overlapping generation model where parental altruism results in transfers that children allocate to consumption and education, the Nash‐Cournot equilibrium results in suboptimal levels of parental transfers and does not maximize the average level of utility of currently living agents. A ban on child labor decreases children's income and generates an increase in parental transfers bringing their levels closer to the optimum, raising children's welfare as well as average welfare in the short run and in the long run. Moreover, the inability to work allows children to allocate more time to education, and it leads to an increase in human capital. Besides, to increase transfers, parents decrease savings and hence physical capital accumulation. When prices are flexible, these effects diminish the positive welfare impact of the ban on child labor. (JEL D91, E21)     

Disability pension among adult former child welfare clients: A Swedish national cohort study

Using longitudinal register data on all persons born in Sweden 1973–1978, we report on prevalence of disability pension among young adults who were child welfare clients during their formative years, and explore risk factors for this long-term outcome. For most child welfare subgroups, prevalence approached or exceeded ten percent. Multivariate logistic regression analyses found high crude odds ratios of disability pension among child welfare alumni. These were substantially reduced – but not obliterated – after adjustments for a host of background factors. Decomposition analyses revealed that child welfare alumni’s poor school performance and low educational attainment accounted for most of the confounding effects. We also found that child welfare clients with a disability pension had far higher rates of psychosocial problems in their adult lives than other peers with a disability pension.Child welfare alumni should be regarded as a high risk group for future disability pension and for permanent exclusion from the labor market. Rates of suicidal behavior in adult age were extreme among some subgroups of child welfare alumni with a disability pension, which should be communicated to agencies who are likely to meet these groups (eg. primary health care).     

THE TIMING OF EXEMPTIONS FROM WELFARE WORK REQUIREMENTS AND ITS EFFECTS ON MOTHERS' WORK AND WELFARE RECEIPT AROUND CHILDBIRTH

I quantify the effects of welfare work exemptions on women's labor force participation and welfare receipt. This study, which also examines the age of youngest child (AYC) exemption, is the first to investigate the pregnancy exemption. Between‐state and within‐state variations in exemption length allow me to estimate the heterogeneous effects of each exemption by its timing and strictness. I find that the effects on labor force participation are driven by employment for the pregnancy exemption, inducing relatively stable welfare receipts. In contrast, the effects are driven by unemployment for the AYC exemption, which triggers more reliance on welfare after birth. (JEL I38)     

The effect of child support on the labor supply of custodial mothers participating in TANF

Child support is a critical source of income, especially for the growing proportion of children born to unmarried mothers. Current social policy supports custodial parent employment (e.g., the Earned Income Tax Credit [EITC] and other work supports have largely taken the place of an entitlement to cash assistance for single mothers of young children). Given many single mothers' limited earnings potential, child support from noncustodial fathers is also important. This raises questions about the effects of child support on custodial mothers' labor supply, and whether policies that increase child support receipt will thereby discourage mothers' employment. This paper addresses these questions, taking advantage of data from a statewide randomized experiment conducted in Wisconsin. Unlike previous nonexperimental research, we do not find any negative effect of child support on the likelihood to work for pay or the number of hours worked in a given week. Recent U.S. social welfare policies have focused on increasing both custodial mothers' child support collections and their labor supply. The results suggest that these may be compatible policies; the absence of a negative labor supply effect strengthens the potential antipoverty effectiveness of child support.     

Close to Home: A Simultaneous Equations Model of the Relationship Between Child Care Accessibility and Female Labor Force Participation

Rising rates of maternal employment among current and former welfare recipients have increased the use of non-parental child care. Little empirical work examines the relationship between women’s labor supply and the geographic supply of child care. We combine census data with child care provider information for the state of Maryland to explore the relationship between female labor supply and the geographic supply of child care. OLS and 3-SLS equations are estimated, and the findings are consistent across each estimator: Women’s labor supply is sensitive to the geographic supply of child care and vice versa. These results are important because states now spend significant money on quality improvement initiatives, many of which increase child care supply in low-income neighborhoods.

LABOR MARKETS, INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLIZATION, WELFARE, AND IMPRISONMENT:

Various theorists posit that the rate of unemployment is linked to the rates of both welfare and imprisonment. This assumes a competitive labor market tied to specific controls of surplus populations. This article argues that contemporary labor markets lie on a continuum between competitive (secondary) and relatively non-competitive (primary) structures which creates a pattern of labor market segmentation. Such segmentation is linked with specific policies of incarceration or welfare, depending on the competitiveness of the labor market. Data from a cross-section of urban, industrial U.S. counties test the relationship between labor market segmentation, monopolization of industries, and the rates of welfare and imprisonment, controlling for a variety of other relevant variables. Regression analyses results suggest that as labor market structures become less competitive (i.e., move from predominantly secondary toward predominantly primary labor market characteristics), rates of welfare recipients and welfare benefits rise and rates of imprisonment fall. They also suggest that increasing industrial monopolization raises rates of imprisonment and lowers rates of welfare benefits. These findings indicate that the two major dimensions of economic segmentation (industrial competition and labor market competition) oppositely affect levels of welfare benefits and rates of imprisonment.     

The Labor Market Orientation of Single Mothers on Welfare in The Netherlands

Since the implementation of the new General Assistance Act (1996) in The Netherlands, single parents on welfare have become obliged to seek work as soon as their youngest child has become 5 years old. This article presents a study of 1,049 Dutch single mothers on welfare. Using LISREL, a conceptual model is examined for the effects of both the past and current circumstances of the mothers on their labor orientation and on their steps toward a full‐time job. An individual mother's motivation to work is particularly related to the importance she attaches to caring (care ethos) as opposed to working (work ethos) and to the problems she anticipates in combining care and work.     

Child welfare: A view from Australia

In this article the author presents an analysis of family and child welfare in Australia. The author explores the philosophical approaches underlying the development of child welfare policies. Through a historical perspective the author identifies factors which may have influenced some current child welfare policies and practices. Characteristics of the Australian child are described and selected child welfare services in Australia are discussed.She is Editor ofAustralian Child and Family Welfare Journal. She has worked in child welfare in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.     

The relationship between child welfare financing,screening, and substantiation

This study examines the relationship between state-level child welfare spending and two important decision points in the child welfare system: the decision to screen out a referral and the decision to substantiate. The model is estimated using a pooled fractional probit estimator that controls for year effects and state-level clustering. The findings suggest that decreases in state-level child welfare expenditures predict increases in the proportion of referrals that are screened out and decreases in the proportion of maltreatment claims that are substantiated. The results are robust to the inclusion of caseload and federal spending as control variables, to the exclusion of states known to have changed their screening or funding practices during the sample period, and to the use of combined state and local child welfare expenditures as an explanatory variable in lieu of state-level child welfare expenditures. The findings imply that the amount of money a state spends on child welfare may influence important decisions in the child welfare process.     

THE LONG‐TERM EFFECTS OF CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS ON CHILD LABOR AND SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

This paper investigates the long‐term effects of conditional cash transfers on school attainment and child labor. To this end, we construct a dynamic heterogeneous agent model, calibrate it with Brazilian data, and introduce a policy similar to the Brazilian Bolsa Família. Our results suggest that this type of policy has a very strong impact on educational outcomes, sharply increasing primary school completion. The conditional transfer is also able to reduce the share of working children from 22% to 17%. We then compute the transition to the new steady state and show that the program actually increases child labor over the short run, because the transfer is not enough to completely cover the schooling costs, so children have to work to be able to comply with the program's schooling eligibility requirement. We also evaluate the impacts on poverty, inequality, and welfare. (JEL O11, I25, J24)     

Does the minimum wage drive teenagers out of the labor force?

Labor force participation is directly related to the value of being in the labor force. The effect of the minimum wage on labor force participation thus measures how the minimum wage affects the welfare of labor force participants. In contrast, a decline in employment tells us little about welfare, because of the offsetting wage increase. Only changes in labor force participation can directly measure the welfare effects of the minimum wage. Despite this, most literature about the minimum wage has been focused on employment. My empirical results show that the minimum wage has a significant negative effect on teenage labor force participation. Thus, a minimum wage reduces the value of entering the labor market.     

Methamphetamine and the changing face of child welfare: practice principles for child welfare workers

Methamphetamine use and production is changing child welfare practice. Methamphetamine is a significant public health threat (National Institute of Justice, 1999) reaching epidemic proportions (Anglin, Burke, Perrochet, Stamper, & Dawud-Nouris, 2000). The manufacturing of methamphetamine is a serious problem for the child welfare system, yet child welfare has not addressed the needs of children living in homes where methamphetamine is manufactured (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002; DOJ, 2003; Altshuler, 2005). This article presents key issues for child welfare workers related to the use, production, and effects of methamphetamine on children and families, and identifies practice principles for child welfare workers in order to ensure safety for victims, parents, and workers themselves.     

Organizational constructs as predictors of effectiveness in child welfare interventions

Organizational context, including line worker characteristics and service settings, may help explain the equivocal findings of intervention studies in the field of child welfare. Yet organizational context has been largely ignored in studies of child welfare interventions. The purpose of this article is to expound upon the likely role of the organizational context in explaining service effectiveness in child welfare. Several bodies of literature within child welfare and human service organization and administration are reviewed and synthesized. A conceptual framework that can be used to guide future child welfare research is then proposed.     

Child welfare clients and school satisfaction

Despite long-standing knowledge about child welfare clients' poor educational outcomes, we know less about these vulnerable young people's situation in school. This article addresses school satisfaction among upper secondary students who have been in contact with the child welfare services. These child welfare clients' school satisfaction is compared with their peers' satisfaction. The results from a survey indicated that the majority of child welfare clients were satisfied with school but that they were less satisfied with school than were their peers. The results showed that the association between school satisfaction and positive school experiences explains a large part of this difference. Among students who reported they were doing well in school, had supportive teachers and friends at school, the difference in school satisfaction between child welfare clients and others was small. Among students who did not report similar positive experiences in school, difference in school satisfaction between child welfare clients and their peers was more substantial. These results show that school can be a good place for child welfare clients, but that facilitating support from teachers, increasing opportunities for making friends at school, and working to develop the child welfare clients' academic performances are important as efforts to improve school satisfaction.     

Downward spiral: The impact of out-of-home placement on paternal welfare dependency

In this article, we test how out-of-home placement affects men's labor market attachment, and in so doing we provide a novel parallel to existing research on how fatherhood affects men, which focuses almost exclusively on a child's arrival. Using population panel data from Denmark that include all first time fathers whose children were placed in out-of-home care from 1995 to 2005, we find that having a child placed in care is associated with up to a 4 percentage point increase in welfare dependency. Having a child placed in out-of-home care appear to aggravate conditions that likely necessitated the out-of-home placement to begin with, thereby likely necessitating longer duration of out-of-home placements. Thus, out-of-home placements have substantial secondary costs for parents and society.     

The challenges of child welfare involvement for Afro-Caribbean families in Toronto

There is a growing and robust child welfare literature on service users' perspectives. However, little attention is paid to the experiences of Afro-Caribbean mothers and youth as service users. The author argues that this lack of attention is problematic given that the literature consistently shows an overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system. This article reports on some of the findings of a study that was conducted in Toronto with Afro-Caribbean service users about their experiences in the child welfare system. Findings reveal themes that are common to both groups of service users: mothers and youth, though some themes are unique to each group. Themes generated from interviews with service users show the challenges of structural inequalities and the complexities of racism, classism, sexism and cultural differences on child welfare involvement for Afro-Caribbean families in Toronto. Interviews with child welfare workers also revealed themes that supported service users' perspectives. The article concludes by arguing that research is needed to explicate the relationship between structural inequalities, including culturally different parenting practices on the experiences of Afro-Caribbean services users in the child welfare system in Toronto. Such exploration has the potential to reduce the number of Afro-Caribbean children entering the child welfare system.     

Improving Relationships in Child Welfare Practice: Perspectives of Foster Care Providers

Foster parents care for our nation’s most vulnerable children and adolescents. Their ability to provide care is impacted directly and indirectly by their interactions with public child welfare agencies and workers. This study examines the perspectives of 1095 foster parents in a southwestern state in the U.S. regarding what they believe child welfare workers are doing well and their suggestions for ways to improve relationships between foster care providers and child welfare workers. Foster parents commended caseworkers who were responsive to their needs and provided ongoing concrete and emotional support, and believed there was a need for improved communication and enhanced teamwork. Foster parents consistently acknowledged an overwhelmed child welfare system and the impact on child welfare workers and child welfare-involved families. Understanding the perspectives of foster parents can improve relationships between child welfare workers and foster parents, improve recruitment and retention efforts of foster parents, prevent disruption of children from foster homes due to license closure, and improve the overall well-being of child welfare-involved children and families.     

Family and neighborhood welfare dependency and sons' labor supply

This article tests four models of how parental and childhood welfare use affects sons' labor supply: the correlated disadvantages model, Wilson's structural-environmental model, Mead's welfare culture model, and Murray's incentives model. Past research is extended by including measures of all seven factors that these models predict will shape sons' labor supply: parental welfare use, neighborhood welfare use, parental income, family noneconomic resources, neighborhood resources, labor market conditions, and state welfare benefits. There are four main findings. First, welfare use in the childhood neighborhood has no effects on sons' work hours. Second, only one group of sons is affected by parental welfare use: black sons' whose parents average $7,500 or more in welfare income per year. Third, black sons' adult work hours are strongly predicted by parental poverty and by labor market conditions; together these account for half the estimated relationships between heavy parental welfare use and black sons' labor supply. Fourth, parents' and neighbors' work hours strongly predict nonblack sons' labor supply. This research was supported by Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, by the Rockefeller Foundation, and by the Office of the Vice-President for Research at the University of Michigan. We are grateful to John Bound, Sheldon Danziger, Greg Duncan, Martha Hill, and an anoymous reviewer for helpful comments and advice, to Marguerite Grabarek and James Kunz for programming, and most of all to Wendy Niemi for her patient, accurate, and efficient typing. Her research interests include poverty, social stratification, and labor economics. His research interests include rural poverty, poverty neighborhoods, and intergenerational poverty.     

Children ever in care: an examination of cumulative disproportionality

Most studies of ethnic disproportionality in child welfare examine data in one of two ways: a point in time approach or an entry cohort approach. While each provides insight into disproportionality, neither gives a full picture of the differences among ethnic groups in the experience of the child welfare system over time. This study uses longitudinal administrative child welfare data to examine ethnic disproportionality in involvement with the child welfare system during the first seven years of life at three levels of contact: (1) initial referrals, (2) substantiated referrals, and (3) first entries. Findings suggest the experience of African American families, and probably Native American families, with the child welfare system is much different from other families.