Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

4-2015

Abstract

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA; Pub. L. 104-193) in the United States aimed at encouraging work among low-income mothers with children below age 18. In this study, the author used a sample of 2,843 intergenerational family observations from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate the effects of the reform on single grandmothers who are related to those mothers. The results suggest that the reform decreased time transfers but increased money transfers from grandmothers. The results are consistent with an intergenerational family support network where higher child care subsidies motivated the family to shift away from grandmother provided child care and where grandmothers increased money transfers to either help cover the remaining cost of formal care or to partly compensate for the loss in benefits of welfare leavers.

Keywords

child care, evaluation, family policies, fragile families, grandparents, welfare

Discipline

Labor Economics | Public Policy

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

Publication

Journal of Marriage and Family

Volume

77

Issue

2

First Page

407

Last Page

423

ISSN

0022-2445

Identifier

10.1111/jomf.12172

Publisher

Wiley

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12172

Share

COinS