The objective of the project on Income Support Policies and Welfare Dependency is to develop a comprehensive understanding of factors governing welfare dependency, and to use these results to assess the likely impact of current welfare reform options on employment and welfare experiences. It will examine three sets of questions: (1) What is the nature of the experiences contributing to welfare dependency? (2) What role does work play in helping families escape from welfare dependency? and (3) What is the influence of labor-market opportunities and the generosity of public assistance on welfare experiences? To answer these questions we will implement a multi-state transition probability model that is capable of characterizing welfare participation over extended segments of the lifetime. The empirical model will integrate many dimensions of individuals' behavior, including not only their activities relating to welfare participation and employment, but also their actions determining fertility, marriage, and family hours-of-work choices. The project will use longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
