Volume 38, Supplement 2003
Moffitt, Robert. 2003. "The Role of the Nonfinancial Factors in Exit and Entry in the TANF Program." Journal of Human Resources 38(S):1221-1254.
The dramatic decline in the AFDC-TANF caseload in the 1990s has refocused attention on the process of exit from and entry into welfare. This paper focuses on the role of nonfinancial factors in exit and entry in the post.1996 TANF program. The nonfinancial factors are work and other requirements, sanctions, and diversion. Using data from a study of welfare and nonwelfare families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio in the period 1999-2001, both descriptive evidence and evidence from an econometric model suggest that these factors played a large role in exit and entry over the period.
Robert Moffitt is a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. He would like to thank Andrew Cherlin. James Quane, two anonymous referees of this journal, and the participants at several universities and research organizations for comments. Wei Tan and Katie Winder provided excellent research assistance. The author also gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the National Institutes of Health and several foundations. An early version of these results was presented at a conference sponsored by the Economic Research Service and the Institute for Research on Poverty in May 2002 in Washington, D.C. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning [May 2004 through April 2007J from Robert Moffitt. Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, moffitt@jhu.edu .
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X