US welfare-to-work programs : the good, the bad and the ugly
By: GREENBERG, David
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Contributor(s): CEBULLA, Andreas.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Philadelphia : Routledge, ago./set. 2008International Journal of Public Administration - IJPA 31, 10-11, p. 1354-1379Abstract: Welfare policy in the United States has moved from passive transfer payments to 'activating' welfare recipients toward greater self-sufficiency. Using meta-analysis, we assess around 100 mandatory U.S. welfare-to-work programs, which were evaluated by random assignment, to identify those performing best and worst in terms of their effects on participants' earnings and the proportion of participants moving off welfare. Controlling for participant and site characteristics, the program features that differentiate good from bad programs are found to be whether the interventions increased the use of sanctions, job search, and work experience, which increases the size of program effects, and whether they incorporated financial incentives, which reduces program effect sizes. However, rather than abandoning financial incentives wholesale, we argue for a better balance of welfare reform measures to help to reduce the risks of poverty and to community cohesion, as well as ensure greater self-sufficiency.
Welfare policy in the United States has moved from passive transfer payments to 'activating' welfare recipients toward greater self-sufficiency. Using meta-analysis, we assess around 100 mandatory U.S. welfare-to-work programs, which were evaluated by random assignment, to identify those performing best and worst in terms of their effects on participants' earnings and the proportion of participants moving off welfare. Controlling for participant and site characteristics, the program features that differentiate good from bad programs are found to be whether the interventions increased the use of sanctions, job search, and work experience, which increases the size of program effects, and whether they incorporated financial incentives, which reduces program effect sizes. However, rather than abandoning financial incentives wholesale, we argue for a better balance of welfare reform measures to help to reduce the risks of poverty and to community cohesion, as well as ensure greater self-sufficiency.
Volume 31
Numbers 10-11
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