Rence, Cynthia, and Michael Wiseman. 1978. "The California Welfare Reform Act and Participation in AFDC." Journal of Human Resources 13(1):37-59.

In this paper we report results of estimation of the number of families eligible for assistance under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program in two major California counties in 1970. Our estimates indicate that at the time of the California Welfare Reform Act the pool of eligibles was virtually exhausted. The results confirm the conclusions of earlier work by Barbara Boland; however, that work was flawed by use of incorrect program data and certain methodological problems. The eligibles estimate is shown to be more sensitive to alternative procedures for treatment of earnings than Boland's results indicate. Substantial underreporting of public assistance payments in Census data is found.

Rence is a graduate student and Wiseman is an Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley. This research was funded by the California State Department of Benefit Payments under State Demonstration Project 422. Since grantees conducting research and development projects under state sponsorship are encouraged to express their own judgment freely, this paper does not necessarily represent the official opinion or policy of the California Department of Benefit Payments. The authors are alone responsible for its contents. Useful comments from Frank Levy, Frances Flanagan, and the editor and referees for this Journal are gratefully acknowledged. We are indebted to Karl Ioria and David Wells for programming assistance.

© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

US ISSN 0022-166X

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