Family cap provisions and changes in births and abortions
By: Ted Joyce ... [et al.].
Contributors: Joyce, Theodore J.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10214; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10214.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Public welfare -- United States -- States.; Fertility, Human -- Economic aspects -- United States -- States.; Abortion -- United States -- States.
Description: "As part of welfare reform efforts in the 1990s, twenty-three states implemented family caps, provisions that deny or reduce cash assistance to welfare recipients who have additional births.  We use birth and abortion records from 24 states to estimate effects of family caps on birth and abortion rates.  We use age, marital status and completed schooling to identify women at high risk for use of public assistance, and parity (number of previous live births) to identify those most directly affected by the family cap.  In family cap states, birth rates fell more and abortion rates rose more among high-risk women with at least one previous live birth compared to similar childless women, consistent with an effect of the family cap.  However, this parity-specific pattern of births and abortions also occurred in states that implemented welfare reform with no family cap.  Thus, the effects of welfare reform may have differed between mothers and childless women, but there is little evidence of an independent effect of the family cap"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Also available in print.
Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 1/18/2005.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.