Existing studies fail to explain the changes well. Also, they do not reveal the policies behind the changes, nor the important role of governmental quality in shaping welfare reform. In this study, I use cross-sectional models based on states, measure welfare reform policies directly using program data, and relate these policies to background features of states' politics and government. Results show that grant levels, work and child support requirements, and sanctions are important explainers of caseload change, together with some demographic factors and unemployment. These policies in turn are tied to states' political opinion, political culture, and institutional capacity.
Moralistic states seem the most capable of transforming welfare as the public wants.
We examine the level of involvement of TANF applicants with the child welfare system both before and after their application for TANF assistance and inclusion in our study. We find a high level of overlap between TANF and child welfare populations. We also find a set of correlates of CPS involvement after TANF application that are robust to a variety of model specifications. In this paper, we use a general equilibrium simulation model of the housing market to assess the potential to reduce the incidence of homelessness of various housing-market policy interventions. A version of the model developed by Anas and Arnott is extended and adapted to study homelessness and is calibrated to the four largest metropolitan areas in California.