Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T16:20:28.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Welfare and the Multifaceted Decision to Move

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2005

MICHAEL A. BAILEY
MICHAEL A. BAILEY
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whether poor single mothers move in response to welfare benefits has important implications for social policy in a federal system. Many scholars claim that welfare does not affect migration. These claims are not definitive, however, because the models underlying them rely on problematic assumptions and do not adequately control for nonwelfare determinants of migration. I address these shortcomings with an improved statistical model of individual-level migration. The results indicate that welfare does affect residential choice. Although the effects of welfare are much smaller than the effects of family ties, they are real and have the potential to cause nontrivial changes in welfare populations and welfare expenditures.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 99 , Issue 1 , February 2005 , pp. 125 - 135
Copyright
© 2005 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allard Scott, and Sheldon Danziger. 2000. “Welfare Magnets: Myth or Reality?” Journal of Politics 62 (May): 350– 68.Google Scholar
Bailey Michael, and Mark Rom. 2004. “A Wider Race? Interstate Competition Across Health and Welfare Programs.” Journal of Politics 66 (May): 326– 47.Google Scholar
Berry William D., Richard C. Fording, and Russell L. Hanson. 2003. “Reassessing the ‘Race to the Bottom’ Thesis: A Spatial Dependence Model of State Welfare Policy.” Journal of Politics 65 (May): 327– 49.Google Scholar
Brueckner Jan. 2000. “Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom: Theory and Evidence.” Southern Economic Journal 66 (January): 505– 25.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2001. “Annual Average Unemployment.” Available online at bls.gov/data/home.htm. Accessed summer 2001.
Census Bureau 2000. “County Business Patterns.” Available online at fisher.lib.virginia.edu/cbp/state.html. Accessed December 2001.
Frey William, Kao-Lee Liaw, Yu Xie, and Marcia Carlson. 1996. “Interstate Migration of the US Poverty Population: Immigration Pushes and Welfare Magnet Pulls.” Population and Environment 17 (July): 491– 535.Google Scholar
Gramlich Edward M. 1985. “Reforming U.S. Fiscal Arrangements.” In American Domestic Priorities, ed. John Quigley and Daniel Rubinfeld, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Greene William. 2000. Econometric Analysis. 4th ed. New York: Prentice Hall.
Inman Robert and Daniel Rubinfeld. 1997. “Rethinking Federalism.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 11 (Fall): 43– 64.Google Scholar
Levine Phillip, and David Zimmerman. 1999. “An Empirical Analysis of the Welfare Magnet Debate Using the NLSY.” Journal of Population Economics 12 (August): 391– 409.Google Scholar
Meyer Bruce. 2000. “Do the Poor Move to Receive Higher Welfare Benefits?” Manuscript, Northwestern University.
Peterson Paul E., and Mark Carl Rom. 1989. “American Federalism, Welfare Policy and Residential Choices.” American Political Science Review 83 (September): 711– 28.Google Scholar
Rom Mark Carl, Paul E. Peterson, and Kenneth F. Scheve. 1998. “Interstate Competition and Welfare Policy.” Publius 28 (Fall): 17– 38.Google Scholar
Ruggles Steven, Matthew Sobek et al. 1997. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 2.0. Minneapolis: Historical Census Projects, University of Minnesota.
Schram Sanford, Lawrence Nitz, and Gary Krueger. 1998. “Without Cause or Effect: Reconsidering Welfare Migration as a Policy Problem.” American Journal of Political Science 42 (January): 210– 30.Google Scholar
Schram Sanford, and Joseph Soss. 1998. “Making Something Out of Nothing: Welfare Reform and a New Race to the Bottom.” Publius 28 (Summer): 67– 88.Google Scholar
Social Security Administration. Various years. Social Security Bulletin Annual Statistical Supplement. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Various years. Background Material and Data on Programs within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Vartanian Thomas, Joseph Soss, Sanford Schram, and Jim Baumohl. 1999. “Already Hit Bottom: General Assistance and Single Male Migration.” In Welfare Reform: A Race to the Bottom? ed. Sanford F. Schram and Samuel H. Beer. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Press.
Volden Craig. 2002. “The Politics of Competitive Federalism: A Race to the Bottom in Welfare Benefits?” American Journal of Political Science 46 (April): 352– 63.Google Scholar