Welfare reform and child well-being

This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine how the pre- and post-1996 welfare reforms influence measures of children's well-being. Despite a large body of research relating welfare reform policies to family structure, employment, and income, fewer studies have used econometric methods on data from multiple states to examine how changes in welfare policies in the pre- and post-TANF periods have influenced children. The results from this study have the potential to shed light on whether policy choices adopted by states are related to children's well-being. Overall, the results do not show evidence that state welfare policies are systematically associated with parenting behavior or child outcomes.