Welfare-to-work experience is focus
of King’s new book
Welfare and Work: Experiences is Six Cities is the title of a new book by Christopher T. King, director of the LBJ School’s Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, and Peter R. Mueser, professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The book, published by the W.E. Upjohn Institute, examines changes in welfare participation and labor market involvement of welfare recipients in six major cities during the 1990s. By focusing on these six cities (Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Houston and Kansas City) the authors are able to determine the extent to which differences in state and local policy, administrative directives and local labor market conditions contribute to the trends in caseloads, employment and well-being observed among former recipients. This allows the authors to identify recipient flows and patterns of employment in the six cities before and after welfare reform, and to draw conclusions that go beyond existing studies.
The results of the study lead the authors to conclude that welfare reform during the 1990s met many of the primary goals touted by its supporters while avoiding the dire predictions of its harshest critics. However, they note that this success occurred against the backdrop of a booming economy and earlier federal policy changes (e.g., the EITC and Medicaid expansion) and that despite these factors, most former recipients joined the ranks of the working poor.
To obtain a copy of Welfare and Work: Experiences
in Six Cities, visit
http://www.upjohninst.org/publications/titles/waw.html.
Related Links
Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources
Cultivating tomorrow’s workforce: High school students and the Central Texas economy
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14 June 2005
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