scholarly journals Work Hours Instability and Child Poverty: Response of the Safety-Net Programs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Y. Cai
Keyword(s):  
Single Mothers ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Hispanic Children ◽  
Poverty Measure ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
The Face ◽  
Cash Benefits

This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to investigate how intra-year caregiver work-hours volatility is related to child poverty, measured through both the official poverty measure (OPM) and the supplemental poverty measure (SPM). I further assess varying degrees of buffering effects of cash benefits, in-kind benefits, and tax transfers on income in the context of work-hours volatility. Results indicate that Black and Hispanic children, as well as those living with unpartnered single mothers, faced substantially higher variability in household market hours worked. Hispanic children experienced not only greater volatility in their caregivers’ work hours, but also higher poverty levels, even after taking government programs into account. I find that a 10 percent increase in intra-year hours volatility is linked to roughly a 2 percent and 1.6 percent increase in OPM and SPM child poverty, respectively. In-kind benefits are more effective in buffering household income declines resulting from unstable caregiver work hours, followed by tax transfers and cash benefits, which each offer somewhat less of a buffering effect. The effectiveness of near-cash benefits is particularly salient among Black children and children of unpartnered single mothers. Hispanic children also benefited from these transfers’ compensating effects, but to a lesser degree. These results provide new evidence to inform public policy discussions surrounding the best ways to help socioeconomically disadvantaged families to retain benefits and smooth their income in the face of frequent variation in work hours and, thus, earnings.

USA Child Poverty: The Impact of the Great Recession

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wimer ◽  
Timothy M. Smeeding
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Median Income ◽  
Relative Poverty ◽  
Poverty Measure ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Impact

The Great Recession (GR) was the most dramatic economic downturn the USA has experienced in more than six decades. But against this backdrop, the USA actually made some limited progress against child poverty over the Great Recession when one considers the new US Supplemental Poverty Measure which lies at about 40 per cent of median income. The main reason was the growth of a well-targeted near cash safety net, combined with earnings enhancements in the form of refundable tax credits. These enhancements helped the working poor, but not many parents of children who could not find jobs. However these improvements had little if any effect on relative poverty counted at a European or cross-national relative poverty standard set at 60 per cent of median income. Greater progress against child poverty in the US requires a continued strong job market coupled with a child allowance.

Safety Net Policies, Child Poverty, and Development Across the Lifespan

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 337-357
Author(s):  
Benard P. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Outcomes ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
Unfinished Business ◽  
Poverty Measure ◽  
High Resource ◽  
The 1960S

The United States has developed an effective safety net of programs starting during the Great Depression, picking up steam in the War on Poverty of the 1960s, and continuing to this day. These efforts have been impactful. Child poverty rates tracked by the supplemental poverty measure have dropped by nearly 50% since the 1960s. Causal studies show that many of these programs improve child outcomes by alleviating income poverty. Some of the evidence shows that such impacts last into adulthood. Nevertheless, addressing child poverty is unfinished business for the United States. Children are still the poorest age group in our society. More robust versions of present safety net programs, as well as the possible introduction of child benefits/child allowances, which many other high-resource countries already provide to families, will need to be considered if we are going to make further progress in substantially reducing child poverty.

scholarly journals Unequal From the Start? Poverty Across Immigrant Generations of Hispanic Children

Demography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Thiede ◽  
Matthew M. Brooks ◽  
Leif Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Generational Differences ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Hispanic Children ◽  
Poverty Measure ◽  
Immigrant Generations ◽  
The U.S

Abstract Recent cohorts of U.S. children increasingly consist of immigrants or the immediate descendants of immigrants, a demographic shift that has been implicated in high rates of child poverty. Analyzing data from the 2014–2018 Current Population Survey and using the U.S. Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, we describe differences in child poverty rates across immigrant generations and assess how these disparities are rooted in generational differences in the prevalence and impact of key poverty risk factors. Our estimates show that poverty rates among Hispanic children are very high, particularly among first-generation children and second-generation children with two foreign-born parents. Low family employment is the most significant risk factor for poverty, but the prevalence of this risk varies little across immigrant generations. Differences in parental education account for the greatest share of observed intergenerational disparities in child poverty. Supplemental comparisons with third+-generation non-Hispanic White children underscore the disadvantages faced by all Hispanic children, highlighting the continued salience of race and ethnicity within the U.S. stratification system. Understanding the role of immigrant generation vis-à-vis other dimensions of inequality has significant policy implications given that America's population continues to grow more diverse along multiple social axes.

Canada

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua T. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Primary Method ◽  
Tax Relief ◽  
The Us ◽  
Cash Benefits ◽  
Child Tax Credit ◽  
Family Allowances ◽  
Initial Change

Chapter 4 examines how Canadian policymakers’ renewed promise to tackle child poverty translated into the Child Tax Benefit, the nonrefundable Child Tax Credit, and the Working Income Tax Benefit. Whereas the logic of tax relief served as the springboard for fiscalization in the US, the logic of income supplementation drove the process in Canada. This difference had important implications for the shape and scope of Canadian tax credits, enabling them to significantly reduce child poverty relative to the much weaker outcomes in the US. Family allowances offered policymakers an alternative to welfare as the primary method of delivering cash benefits to children. Canadian policymakers, including conservative policymakers and profamily groups, saw expanding child tax credits as a way to “take children off welfare” by redirecting benefits through a nonstigmatizing program. The initial change occurred under the Progressive Conservatives in 1992 and was consolidated under the Liberals in 1997.

Means-Tested Safety Net Programs and Hispanic Families: Evidence from Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC

2021 ◽  
Vol 696 (1) ◽  
pp. 274-305
Author(s):  
Marianne Bitler ◽  
Lisa A. Gennetian ◽  
Christina Gibson-Davis ◽  
Marcos A. Rangel
Keyword(s):  
Safety Net ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Supplemental Nutrition ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Hispanic Families ◽  
Hispanic Mothers ◽  
Nutrition Assistance ◽  
Antipoverty Programs ◽  
Immigrant Politics

Hispanic families have historically used means-tested assistance less than high-poverty peers, and one explanation for this may be that anti-immigrant politics and policies are a barrier to program participation. We document the participation of Hispanic children in three antipoverty programs by age and parental citizenship and the correlation of participation with state immigrant-based restrictions. Hispanic citizen children with citizen parents participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid more than Hispanic citizen children with noncitizen parents. Foreign-born Hispanic mothers use Medicaid less than their socioeconomic status would suggest. However, little evidence exists that child participation in Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) varies by mother’s nativity: foreign-born mothers of Hispanic infants participate in WIC at higher rates than U.S.-born Hispanic mothers. State policies that restrict immigrant program use correlate to lower SNAP and Medicaid uptake among citizen children of foreign-born Hispanic mothers. WIC participation may be greater because it is delivered through nonprofit clinics, and WIC eligibility for immigrants is largely unrestricted.

scholarly journals Forgoing Food Assistance out of Fear: Simulating the Child Poverty Impact of a Making SNAP a Legal Liability for Immigrants

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311983269
Author(s):  
Jennifer Laird ◽  
Isaac Santelli ◽  
Jane Waldfogel ◽  
Christopher Wimer
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Parents ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Potential Child ◽  
Cash Benefits ◽  
Nutrition Assistance ◽  
Proposed Regulation

Public charge, a term used by immigration officials for over 100 years, refers to a person who relies on public assistance at the government’s expense. Immigrants who are deemed at high risk of becoming a public charge can be denied green cards; those outside of the United States can be denied entry. Current public charge policy largely applies to cash benefits. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a regulation that will allow officials to consider the take-up of both cash and non-cash benefits when making public charge determinations. Nearly 90 percent of children with immigrant parents are U.S.-born and therefore eligible for public benefits. Most of these children live in mixed-status households. We examine the potential child poverty impact of the proposed regulation. Our results show that depending on the chilling effect, more than 2 million citizen children could lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a result of the proposed regulation.

Welfare Reform and the Health Insurance Coverage of Women and Children

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John H Cawley ◽  
Mathis Schroeder ◽  
Kosali Ilayperu Simon
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
The Difference

There is tremendous interest in understanding the effects of welfare reform enacted by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Our interest lies in one possible consequence of welfare reform: the loss of health insurance.This paper advances the literature by utilizing the 1992-1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, matching type of insurance coverage to the presence of waivers from AFDC or TANF implementation in each state in specific months. We utilize a difference in differences method. Specifically, we estimate the difference before and after welfare reform in the insurance coverage of women and children who were likely to be eligible for welfare compared to those who were likely to be ineligible for welfare.We find that AFDC waivers prior to 1996 and the implementation of TANF after 1996 raised the probability that welfare-eligible women lack health insurance coverage. Specifically, TANF implementation is associated with a 7.8 percent increase in the probability that a welfare-eligible woman was uninsured. Welfare reform had less of an impact on the health insurance coverage of children. We find no evidence that AFDC waivers increased the probability that welfare-eligible children were uninsured. However, TANF implementation was associated with a 2.8 percent increase in the probability that a welfare-eligible child lacked health insurance.

Do Long Work Hours Contribute to Divorce?

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Popular Press ◽  
Long Work Hours ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Working Couples

Abstract Despite frequent claims in the popular press that Americans are working longer hours to the detriment of their families, little academic research has directly tested this proposition. I provide new descriptive evidence on the link between work hours of married couples and the likelihood that a couple will get divorced. Using samples of working couples from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I uncover several key facts: First, the incidence of divorce is much greater when both spouses are working than when only one spouse is employed. Second, the work hours of women are more highly correlated with divorce than are the work hours of men. Finally, despite these robust correlations, it is difficult to attribute a causal effect of work hours to divorce propensity.

Online Patriarchal Bargains and Social Support: Struggles and Strategies of Unwed Single Mothers in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 152747642094274
Author(s):  
Xiaoman Zhao ◽  
Sun Sun Lim
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Population Control ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
The Face ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Systemic Constraints

Patriarchal bargains have been studied in many settings as a strategy that helps women circumvent constraints and forge spaces for individual empowerment. Despite the growing use of mediated communication, little is known about how patriarchal bargains are enacted and realized within online interactions such as in discussion forums. By analyzing how Chinese unwed single mothers renegotiate the state’s oppressive population control and gender policies through their online activity, this study proposes the concept of “online patriarchal bargain” to extend patriarchal bargain theory to women’s Internet use. It further explores linkages between social support and patriarchal bargain to elucidate how support is integral to enacting agency in the face of forbidding systemic constraints. The findings also delve into the role of therapeutic culture in the day-to-day experiences of women, especially those in marginalized communities.

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