The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 places vast new information burdens on state and local governments and the nonprofit and private sectors. Three classes of problems confront program and information managers implementing welfare reform: developing information infrastructure, redesigning applications to…

Case studies of 19 U.S. companies involved in welfare-to-work programs found that political and economic factors have accelerated the rate at which employers are hiring welfare recipients. Although participation in welfare-to-work programs is dominated by larger firms in a few industries (such as service and retail sectors), there is potential for…