ERIC Number: ED439273
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2000-Mar
Pages: 68
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Encouraging Work, Reducing Poverty: The Impact of Work Incentive Programs.
Berlin, Gordon L.
The Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project, and Milwaukee's New Hope Project are three antipoverty programs that were undertaken in the 1990s to end dependency on welfare by "making work pay." The impacts of all three programs were reviewed and compared to those of the Seattle/Denver Income Maintenance Experiment, which was a "negative income tax experiment" conducted in the 1970s in response to the mushrooming growth of welfare programs and policies that discouraged welfare recipients from taking jobs. The review focused on the following issues: (1) program impacts in the areas of promoting work and reducing poverty; (2) effects of targeting and program design on program impacts; (3) ways universal support programs might reduce work; and (4) unintended consequences of targeted work incentive programs. The comparative analysis confirmed that all three work incentive programs have effectively achieved their goals of increasing work and income among single parents without incurring many of the unintended negative consequences on employment among the working poor that plagued past welfare reduction policies. When work incentive programs were linked to participation mandates or conditioned on full-time work, they substantially increased the employment, earnings, and total income of long-term welfare recipients. (Contains 54 references.) (MN)
Descriptors: Adult Education, Client Characteristics (Human Services), Comparative Analysis, Employed Women, Employment Level, Employment Patterns, Federal Legislation, Foreign Countries, Income, Literature Reviews, Mothers, One Parent Family, Policy Formation, Poverty, Program Design, Program Effectiveness, Public Policy, Salary Wage Differentials, Synthesis, Tax Credits, Welfare Services, Work Attitudes, Working Poor
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, 16 East 34 Street, New York, NY 10016. Tel: 212-532-3200. For full text: http://www.mdrc.org.
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Policymakers
Language: English
Sponsor: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, MD.; Mott (C.S.) Foundation, Flint, MI.; David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Los Altos, CA.; Ford Foundation, New York, NY.; George Gund Foundation, Cleveland, OH.; James G. Irvine Foundation, San Francisco, CA.; Alcoa Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA.
Authoring Institution: Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., New York, NY.
Identifiers - Location: Canada; United States
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Earned Income Tax Credit; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A