What did the "illegitimacy bonus" reward?
By: Sanders Korenman ... [et al.].
Contributors: Korenman, Sanders.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10699; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10699.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Illegitimacy -- United States -- States.
Description: "The Illegitimacy Bonus,' part of 1996 welfare reform legislation, awarded $100 million in each of five years to the five states with the greatest reduction in the nonmarital birth ratio.  Three "states" -Alabama, Michigan, and Washington DC- won bonuses four or more times each, claiming nearly 60% of award monies.  However, in none of these three states was the decline in the nonmarital birth ratio linked to increases in proportions married, and only in Michigan was it linked to declines in nonmarital (relative to marital) fertility within demographic groups, behavioral changes that the Illegitimacy Bonus was presumably intended to reward.  Shifts in the racial composition of births accounted for 1/3 (Michigan), 2/3 (DC) or all (Alabama) of the decline in the nonmarital birth ratio.  The non-marital birth ratio fell most in DC, averaging 1.5 percentage points per year over the award period.  However, the number of black children born in DC fell by nearly one half from 1991 to 2001.  Changes in population composition alone primarily a decline in the number of black women aged 15 to 34 can account for the entire decline in the nonmarital birth ratio in DC between 1990 and 2000"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Also available in print.
Includes bibliographical references.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.