Cover: The Effects of Work-Conditioned Transfers on Marriage and Child Well-Being

The Effects of Work-Conditioned Transfers on Marriage and Child Well-Being

A Review

Published in: The Economic Journal, v. 119, no. 535, Feb. 2009, p. F15-F37

Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 2009

by Jeffrey Grogger, Lynn A. Karoly

Transfer payments to poor families are increasingly conditioned on work. Although the effects of such programmes on employment are fairly well understood, relatively little is known about their effects on marriage or child well-being. The authors review a few studies that provide such information here. The authors sketch a theoretical model that draws from the efficient-household literature. The model is consistent with the wide range of effects that the authors observe and suggests an explanation for some of the observed differences. Our theoretical framework likewise explains the observed variation in the effects of such programmes on children.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.