Internal medicine

Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Aid to Families with Dependent Children

Single mothers

Demographic economics

Welfare

Labour economics

Logistic regression

Developmental psychology

Odds

Political science

Psychology

Economics

Deadweight loss

Welfare reform

Survey of Income and Program Participation

Daughter

Market economy

Medicine

Journal of Political Economy

We investigate the effect of welfare reform on intergenerational welfare participation, using mother-daughter pairs in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that a mother's Aid to Families with Dependent Children/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (AFDC/TANF) participation increased her daughter's odds of adult participation in that program by roughly 25 percentage points or more, but that welfare reform attenuated this transmission by at least 50%. However, there is no diminution of transmission after welfare reform when we consider the wider safety net or other outcomes. Daughters who grew up with mothers on AFDC/TANF were no better off after reform, with substitution toward other welfare programs over generations.

Welfare Reform and the Intergenerational Transmission of Dependence