Children's welfare exposure and subsequent development |
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Authors: | Phillip B Levine David J Zimmerman |
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Institution: | a Department of Economics, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street 02481 8260, Wellesley, MA, USA b National Bureau of Economic Research, USA c Department of Economics, Fernald House, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA d Institute for Research on Poverty, USA |
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Abstract: | We examine the extent to which children are exposed to the welfare system through their mother's receipt of benefits and its impact on several developmental outcomes. Using data from the matched mother-child file from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we find that children's welfare exposure is substantial. By age 10, over one-third of all children will have lived in a welfare household; black, non-Hispanic children face a much higher rate of exposure. Simple correlations suggest a strong negative relationship between maternal welfare receipt and children's outcomes. In this paper, we implement three alternative strategies (instrumental variables, sibling differences, and child fixed effects models) designed to identify whether this correlation can be attributed to the mother's welfare receipt directly or to other characteristics of mothers who receive welfare, regardless of whether or not those characteristics are observable to the researcher. Based on the results of all three estimation strategies, we find little evidence of any causal link between maternal welfare receipt and children's developmental outcomes. |
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Keywords: | Mother Children Welfare exposure Developmental outcome |
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