Policies & Programs Publications Research

• Klawitter, M.; Carpenter, C. (Forthcoming). Local Antidiscrimination Ordinances and the Earnings of Sexual Minorities: Evidence from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Public Policy and Sexual Orientation, Badgett, M. L.; Frank, J. (eds.).
  
  The abstract for this publication is not available.
  
  
• Gunnar Almgren. (2007). Health Care Politics, Policy, and Services: A Social Justice Analysis. New York: Springer.
  
  Who has a right to health care? How can the idea of Social Justice inform health care? What are the roles of government and personal responsibility toward providing health care? Can we reform the U.S. health care system? These issues are often debated in health care policy or public health courses, yet without the proper knowledge of the true structure of the U.S. health care system or the various social justice models that can inform change. According to the President's New Freedom Commission, our social and public health workers are ill-prepared to address the issues faced in direct healthcare practice, precisely because they are under informed in these areas. In this innovative text, accessible to those in health care policy, social work, public policy, nursing, or public administration, the author provides all the tools necessary to launch a successful attack on what most see as an inadequate health care policy.
  
  
• Haley-Lock, A. and Ford Shah, M. (2007). Protecting vulnerable workers: How public policy and private employers shape the contemporary low-wage work experience. Families in Society, 88(3): 485-95.
  
  This paper presents a conceptual approach to understanding how government and private employers shape the employment experiences of contemporary low-wage workers. After reviewing recent changes in employment conditions that have disproportionately affected poor working families, we present two perspectives on the structural vulnerability for low-wage workers: policy and organizational stratification. The stratification approach suggests that public policy and private workplace practices interact with workers’ personal and family circumstances to shape the outcomes of low-wage employment. Applying these lenses to restaurant workers, we examine why and how some workers may be uniquely disadvantaged by emerging proposals to change minimum wage laws. Promising directions for intervention are also discussed.
  
  
• Magnuson, K. A.; Meyers, M. K.; Waldfogel, J., (2007), Public Funding and Enrollment in Formal Child Care in the 1990s, The Social service review, 81: 1, 47.
  
  Although the share of all 3- and 4-year-old children enrolled in center-based care and early education has grown steadily in recent decades, rates of enrollment for children from low-income families still lag behind those for children from families with high incomes. During the 1990s, growing public funding for compensatory preschool education and means-tested child-care assistance had the potential to increase the availability of free or low-cost formal child-care arrangements and thus the attendance of low-income children. This article analyzes repeated cross-sectional data on formal child-care attendance from the October Current Population Survey as well as data on state-level funding. The results indicate that increases in public funding are positively associated with the probability that low-income young children attended formal care. These results also suggest that gaps in formal care between low- and high-income families would have widened in the absence of public investments.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. D.; Garfinkel, I.; McLanahan, S. S.; Ku, I., (2007), The Impact of Child Support Enforcement Policy on Nonmarital Childbearing, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 26: 1, 79-98.
  
  The interaction of welfare and child support regulations has created a situation in which child support policy's incentives that discourage unwed fatherhood tend to be stronger than its incentives that encourage unwed motherhood. This suggests that more stringent child support enforcement creates incentives that reduce the likelihood of nonmarital childbearing, particularly among women with a significant chance of needing public assistance in the event of a nonmarital birth and their male partners. We investigate this hypothesis with a sample of women from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, to which we add information on state child support enforcement. We examine childbearing behavior between the ages of 15 and 44 before marriage and during periods of non-marriage following divorce or widowhood. The estimates indicate that women living in states with more effective child support enforcement are less likely to bear children when unmarried, especially if they are young, never-married, or black. The findings suggest that improved child support enforcement may be a potent intervention for reducing nonmarital childbearing.
  
  
• Holt, S. D.; Romich, J. L., (2007), Marginal Tax Rates Facing Low- and Moderate-Income Workers Who Participate in Means-Tested Transfer Programs, National tax journal. 60(2): 253.
  
  The combination of a progressive tax system with credits for low-income workers and means-tested transfer programs can create high marginal tax rates (MTRs) on earned income. We document the extent and distribution of statutory and actual MTRs for Wisconsin households with earned income in 2000 using a unique data set of merged tax, transfer program, and wage data. Nearly a quarter of unmarried tax filers with two or more dependents face MTRs of 50 percent or greater. Households between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty threshold and those using multiple means-tested programs are more likely to face high rates.
  
  
• Alegria, M.; Takeuchi, D.; Cao, Z.; McGuire, T. G.; Ojeda, V. D.; Sribney, B.; Woo, M.; Takeuchi, D., (2006), Research Papers - Health Insurance Coverage for Vulnerable Populations: Contrasting Asian Americans and Latinos in the United States, Inquiry, 43(3): 231.
  
  This paper examines the role that population vulnerabilities play in insurance coverage for a representative sample of Latinos and Asians in the United States. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), these analyses compare coverage differences among and within ethnic subgroups, across states and regions, among types of occupations, and among those with or without English language proficiency. Extensive differences exist in coverage between Latinos and Asians, with Latinos more likely to be uninsured. Potential explanations include the type of occupations available to Latinos and Asians, reforms in immigration laws, length of time in the United States, and regional differences in safety-net coverage. Policy implications are discussed.
  
  
• Brown, Susan K. and Charles Hirschman. (2006). "The End of Affirmative Action in Washington State and Its Impact on the Transition from High School to College." Sociology of Education 79:106-130.
  
  Changes in affirmative action policies in some states create possibilities for "natural experiments" to observe the effect of public policy on racial and ethnic inequality in American society. This study measured the impact of Initiative 200, a ballot measure that eliminated affirmative action in Washington State, on the transition from high school to college. As of 1999, the year after I-200 passed, the proportion of minority high school seniors who went to college in Washington State decreased temporarily. The impact of I-200 was registered almost entirely at the University of Washington, the flagship public institution in the state. This decrease, however, stemmed less from changes in minority admission rates than from declines in application rates. Affirmative action programs may provide a signal of an institutional "welcoming environment" that serves as a counterweight to the normal reluctance of prospective students to apply to institutions that may be perceived as intimidating. Although the impact of I-200 was short-lived, significant racial and ethnic differences remain in the transition from high school to college.
  
  
• Ellis, Mark (2006) Unsettling Immigrant Geographies: US Immigration and the Politics of Scale. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie 97: 49-58.
  
  Investigations of immigration politics usually focus on national scale debates and policy initiatives. Immigrant settlement, however, is often highly concentrated in select regions and cities and it is in these places that immigration politics is most contentious. This paper examines these subnational politics of immigration in the United States and explores their relation to national immigration politics. The concentrated geography of immigrants in the United States intersects with a federalised system for dispersing welfare and other social costs of immigration. This creates tension between a central government with the responsibility for controlling admission and state/local governments who pay the social costs of immigrant incorporation. This dynamic of conflict has been exacerbated in recent years by the neoliberal governance strategy of downloading. Geographic concentration has other consequences for the ways in which immigration politics develops, specifically the challenges that visible difference in the landscape poses to national identity. In regard to the latter, the paper echoes Vron Ware by suggesting that an important challenge for diverse immigrant societies is to reimagine all of the nation's territory as multiethnic/multicultural, not just the locations where immigrants cluster.
  
  
• Durfee, A. and Meyers, M.K. (2006). Who Gets What from Government? Distributional Consequences of Child Care Assistance Policies. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68:733-748.
  
  Given the fragmented structure of child-care assistance in the United States, it has been difficult to obtain accurate estimates of which families are assisted, through which mechanisms, and at what level. Making use of survey data from New York City, we analyze the distribution of several forms of public child-care assistance. Results suggest that about 40% of all families with young children receive some form of child-care assistance. Considering all forms of assistance, the distribution of child-care help is targeted in both expected and some unexpected ways. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of U.S. child-care policies governing access and benefit levels.
  
  
• Gornick, J. C.; Meyers, M. K., (2006), L'egalite des sexes : un enjeu pour les reformes - Entre travail remunere et responsabilites familiales, le role des Etats providence - Un regard americain sur la prise en compte du care dans les politiques sociales europeennes, Revue franu’caise des affaires sociales. Cahier de jurisprudence. Emploi-travail., 60: 1, 187.
  
  The abstract for this article is not available.
  
  
• Heintze, T. C.; Meyers, M. K.; Berger, L. M.; Naidich, W. B., (2006), Housing Assistance and Employment: How Far-Reaching Are the Effects of Rental Subsidies?, The Social service review., 80: 4, 635.
  
  This article uses instrumental variables models and data from the National Survey of America’s Families to explore associations between rental housing assistance and employment among low-income, single-mother households in the United States. Results suggest that housing assistance has indirect effects on employment. These effects operate through the stability of housing residency. However, the analyses provide little evidence of direct association between housing assistance and employment. The article also finds that unit- and tenant-based assistance are differentially associated with work hours among employed, low-income single mothers.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Peck, L.R., Davis, E.E., Collins, A., Kreader, J.L., Georges, A., Weber, R., Schexnayder, D., Schroeder. D. and Olson, J.A. (2006). The Dynamics Of Child Care Subsidy Use A Collaborative Study Of Five States. In R. Cabera, R. Hutchens, and L. Peters (eds.), From Welfare to Childcare: What Happens to Young Children When Mothers Exchange Welfare For Work? Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K & Durfee A. (2006). Who Pays? The Visible and Invisible Costs of Child Care. Politics and Society, 24(1): 109-128.
  
  Although the majority of young children now spend time in nonparental child care, we know relatively little about who provides this care and how its costs are distributed among parents, government, and other family members. In this article we use data from a survey of New York City families with children younger than six to estimate the contribution of parental expenditures, government assistance, and the market value of "donated" caregiving time by family, friends, and relatives. We conclude that uncompensated caregivers provide a substantial share of child care that is "invisible" in conventional economic measures.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. (2006). Comment on: "The socioeconomic status of black males: The increasing importance of incarceration," by Steven Raphael, in Public Policy and the Income Distribution, John Quigley, Alan Auerbach and David Card (eds.), New York Russell Sage Foundation 2006.
  
  Available online at http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/smolensky.htm
  
  
• Romich, Jennifer L. (2006). Difficult calculations: Low-income workers and marginal tax rates. Social Service Review 80(1): 27-66.
  
  Means-tested benefits and progressive tax measures are intended to support low- income working families, but they often create high effective marginal tax rates (MTRs). Low-wage workers who increase the number of hours at work or accept raises may find that increased earnings are partially, fully, or more than offset by decreased benefits or increased tax liability. Using longitudinal ethnographic data from 40 families, this study shows how families learn about, view, and respond to high implicit rates of taxation. Contrary to the rhetoric of welfare reform, high MTRs diminish families' opportunities for upward mobility and control over their lives through work.
  
  
• Emeka, Amon and Charles Hirschman. (2005). "Who Applies For and Who Is Selected for Washington State Achievers Scholarships? A Preliminary Assessment." In Edward St. John, ed. Public Policy and Equal Educational Opportunity: Readings on Equal Education. Volume 21, pp. 177-206. New York: AMS Press.http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/smolensky.htm
  
  This report identifies the characteristics of those who apply for the Washington State Achievers Program, as well as those who are ultimately selected, in order to shed light on the factors that impede low-income students from receiving a college education. Rather than simply choosing the best low-income students from schools around the state, this program targets large numbers of students from selected schools in order to establish a "culture of college attendance" at these schools, which will hopefully carry over in years to come and affect entire groups of students rather than a few select students. In the three high schools that were studied for this report, one in five students received a scholarship-a relatively high percentage. The study found that students who receive encouragement to attend college and are popular are significantly more likely to win awards because they are significantly more likely to apply than are other students. Students who spend more time on homework and have more contact with counselors also are significantly more likely to receive awards because they are more apt to apply AND because they are favored in the selection process. Due to the small numbers of students considered, the authors caution that these results must be considered preliminary and tentative.
  
  
• Harper, S.; Reskin, B., (2005), Affirmative Action in School and on the Job, Annual Review of Sociology, 31.
  
  Affirmative action (AA) addresses individuals' exclusion from opportunities based on group membership by taking into account race, sex, ethnicity, and other characteristics. This chapter reviews sociological, economic, historical, and legal scholarship on AA. We first consider the emergence of group-based remedies, how protected groups are defined, and proportional representation as a standard for inclusion. We then summarize the research on AA in education (including busing) and in employment. The concluding section reviews societal responses to AA, including attitudes, challenges, and political responses. As public and judicial support for AA has waned, employers and educators have increasingly turned toward diversity as a rationale for including underrepresented groups. Despite this change, many employers and educators continue to take positive steps to include minorities and women.
  
  
• Gornick, J.C., and Meyers, M.K. (2004). More Alike Than Different: Re- Assessing the Long-Term Prospects for Developing ‘European-Style’ Work-Family Policy in the United States. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 6(3), 251-273.
  
  The link to this abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Riccucci, N.M. and Meyers, M.K. (2004) Linking Passive and Active Representation: The Case of Front-Line Workers in Welfare Agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 4(14): 585-597.
  
  There is a rich body of research addressing the issue of representative bureaucracy in the passive sense (i.e., the degree to which the social characteristics of the bureaucracy reflect the social characteristics of the populations the bureaucracy serves). More recently, a number of studies have sought to demonstrate a potential linkage between passive and active representation, whereby persons in the bureaucracy push for the needs and interests of the persons they are presumed to represent in the citizenry. The theory of active representation holds, for example, that women as compared with men working in the bureaucracy are more likely to push for programs and issues that benefit women in the general population.
  
  The purpose of this research is to test the theory of active representation in welfare offices. More specifically, relying on a model developed by Saltzstein (1979), the research examines the linkage between social origins and attitudes or values, which are a critical antecedent to actions and ultimately policy outcomes. Survey data from eleven welfare offices across four states are relied on to test for this linkage.
  
  
• Riccucci, N.M., Meyers, M.K., Lurie, I. and Han, J.S. (2004) The Implementation of Welfare Reform Policy: The Role of Public Managers in Front-Line Practices. Public Administration Review, 64(4): 438-448.
  
  This study examines the extent to which staff in local welfare systems have embraced new welfare reform goals and, if so, the extent to which local management practices contribute to the alignment of staff priorities with policy objectives. It looks at agency structure and several aspects of public management from a microperspective that prior research has linked to agency performance including training, performance monitoring, staff resources, leadership characteristics, and personnel characteristics. The research indicates that front-line workers in welfare offices continue to believe that traditional eligibility determination concerns are the most important goals at their agencies. It also finds that management practices and the structuring of agency responsibilities matter: To the extent that public managers want to redirect local staff to focus their attention on the new goals associated with welfare reform, they can create the conditions under which staff have clear signals about what is expected and could provide them with the resources and incentives to realign their priorities.
  
  
• Bainbridge, J., Meyers, M.K. & Waldfogel, J. (2003). Child Care Policy Reform and the Employment of Single Mothers. Social Science Quarterly, 84(4), 771-791.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Gornick, J.C., and Meyers, M.K. (2003). Welfare Regimes in Relation to Paid Work and Care. In J.Z. Giele and E. Holst (eds.) Changing Life Patterns in Western Industrial Societies. Netherlands: Elsevier Science Press.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Gornick, J.C. & Meyers, M.K. (2003). Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  
  Balancing work and family life is a problem affecting a large share of Americans today. Families That Work is a significant contribution to a growing literature on this subject. Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers, both professors of public policy, say the U.S. continues to lag behind other industrialized western nations that have institutionalized social and labor policies that promote an equal division of labor between parents juggling work and family responsibilities. As the structure of the American family continues to change, the authors say, private solutions to solving conflicts between work and family life are no longer tenable. Their book illustrates how the U.S. falls short compared to Canada and many European countries on critical quality-of-life indicators including wage losses associated with working part- time, gender inequality in the labor market and at home, family poverty, and child well-being. In their comparative analysis, they make a strong case for an expanded role by the U.S. government to help decrease the time squeeze on employed parents, enhance the well-being of children, and promote increased gender equity in the workforce and at home.
  
  
• Klawitter, M. "Income and program participation among early TANF recipients: The evidence from New Jersey, Washington, and Wisconsin" (with Maria Cancian, Daniel Meyer, Anu Rangarajan, Geoffrey Wallace, and Robert Wood) Focus (Institute for Research on Poverty), Vol. 22(3) pp. 2003.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. & Gornick, J. C. (2003) Public or Private Responsibility? Inequality and Early Childhood Education and Care in the Welfare State. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 34(3), 379-411.
  
  Although early childhood education and care provision (ECEC) is increasing in all the industrialized welfare states, institutional arrangements for providing and financing services still vary substantially across countries at similar levels of economic development. These policies have potentially important implications for the reduction of income and labor market inequalities. In this paper we document variation in the institutional arrangements for ECEC in fourteen industrialized countries. Institutional variation is associated with equally varied levels of public responsibility for the care of young children across countries, and between age groups within some countries. The extent to which care is socialized has implications for the reduction of several forms of social inequality.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. and Vorsanger, S. (2003). Street-Level Bureaucrats and the Implementation of Public Policy. In B. Guy Peters and J. Pierre (eds.) Handbook of Public Administration. New York: Sage Publications.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Plotnick R. with Elizabeth Peters and Se-Ook Jeong. (2003). "How will welfare reform affect family structure and childbearing decisions?". Pp. 59- 91 in R.A. Gordon & H. Walberg (Eds) Changing Welfare. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Plotnick R. with Inhoe Ku. (2003). Do children from welfare families obtain less schooling? Demography, 40:1, February 2003, 151-170.
  
  In this study, we analyzed whether parents' receipt of welfare affects children's educational attainment in early adulthood, independent of its effect through changing family income. We used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with information on parents' welfare receipt over the first 15 years of childhood. Cross-sectional results show that greater exposure to welfare is significantly associated with children's poorer educational attainment. Family fixed-effect regressions also indicate a negative effect of exposure to welfare, but its overall pattern is less consistent. Although exposure to welfare in early childhood has no effect, in adolescence and, to a lesser degree, in middle childhood, its effect is often negative.
  
  
• Almgren G., Yamashiro G, and Ferguson M. Beyond Welfare or Work: Teen Mothers, Household Subsistence Strategies, and Child Development Outcomes. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. September 2002 29 (3), 125-149.
  
  There is probably no aspect of the work versus welfare debate that is more contested than the effects of welfare use on child development outcomes. Liberals tend to emphasize the detrimental effects of poverty and welfare stigma on children, while conservatives cite the negative socialization that occurs regarding the value of work within welfare dependent families. However, large scale longitudinal studies that have been used to address this question only indirectly measure critical influences on child development such as maternal mental health and do not consider the effect that a range of economic strategies that low-income mothers might undertake may have on their children. In this analysis, we employ data from a longitudinal study of 173 teen-mothers to assess the relative effects of maternal characteristics and economic strategies on the developmental outcomes of their children at time of school entry. Two principal findings emerge. First, over the period from their first teen birth to the reference child's entry into school, the sample subjects used a variety of household economic strategies aside from the simple welfare versus work dichotomy that is commonly used to depict the choices of teen- mothers. Second, while maternal depression appears linked to the prevalence of problem behaviors in early childhood, the particular economic strategies used by the mothers in the sample do not explain any variation in either the prevalence of problem behaviors or in children's learning preparation for school entry. These findings support the perspective that the influence of teen mothers' parenting qualities on child development cannot be assessed through an analysis of their labor force participation, use of welfare, or other strategies of household subsistence.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Heintze, T. & Wolf, D. (2002). Child Care Subsidies and the Employment of Welfare Recipients. Demography, 39(1), 165-179.
  
  Changing patterns of maternal employment, coupled with stronger work requirements for welfare recipients, are increasing the demand for child care. For many families, the cost of child care creates a financial burden; for mothers with low incomes and those who are former welfare recipients, these costs may be an insurmountable barrier to employment or economic self-sufficiency. Despite increased public spending in this area, the receipt of any child care subsidy appears to be a relatively rare and uncertain event. In this study, we use data from a sample of low-income single mothers (current and recent welfare recipients in California) to estimate the probability of their receiving child care subsidies and the effect of this probability on labor market activity.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J. & Peck, L. (2002). More, Less, or More of the Same? Publius, 32(4), 91-108.
  
  Major reforms to cash assistance and other welfare programs in the 1990s raise questions about whether states gained new flexibility in setting social policies, and, if so, how they exercised this flexibility. We extend prior research on state social policy by examining trends during the middle to late 1990s in five areas of cash or near-cash policy affecting the economic security of low-income families. We find evidence of substantial change in the generosity and the availability of these benefits between 1994 and 1999, along with evidence of greater divergence or cross-state variation in policy choices. By considering several forms of assistance simultaneously, we also find evidence that states constricted traditional welfare- based assistance while expanding some forms of non-welfare support for the working poor.
  
  
• Charles Hirschman. (2001). "Immigration, Pubic Policy." In Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Vol. 11:7221-7226. Oxford: Elsevier.
  
  The link to this abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Gornick, J.C. & Meyers, M.K. (2001). Lesson-Drawing in Family Policy: Media Reports and Empirical Evidence about European Developments. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 3, 31-57.
  
  Since 1980, the U.S. press has painted a vivid picture of widespread welfare state dismantling in Europe. Yet our analysis of social expenditures in 14 European countries from 1980-1995 finds a pattern of resilience and, with respect to family benefits, a pattern of expansion. Our review of qualitative research on policy reforms upholds the expenditure-based findings. We conclude that U.S. media misrepresentation of social welfare developments in Europe is likely to impede "lesson-drawing" from abroad by U.S. policymakers. This constitutes a lost opportunity, as the U.S. is now engaged in social policy reformulation, especially with respect to programs for families.
  
  
• Kemp S., Almgren G., Gilchrist L and Eisinger A. (2001). Serving "the Whole Child": Prevention Practice and the U.S. Children's Bureau. Smith College Studies in Social Work, June, 475-499.
  
  Social work's early contributions in the domain of prevention are explored through an examination of the United States Children's Bureau campaign to prevent infant mortality in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The article brings into sharper focus the distinctive amalgam of ideology, research, and practice activities at the core of the Children's Bureau prevention paradigm, and presents evidence for the effectiveness of this approach in preventing infant mortality. In conclusion, the implications of this contribution and its legacy are discussed in relation to the shape and direction of social work's investments in contemporary prevention science. At the beginning of this century, as at the beginning of the last, there is increasing interest in prevention as a focus of social work practice and research (Bloom, 1996; Fraser, 1997; Smokowski, 1998; Whittaker, 1996). Social work's rich legacy in prevention practice is however largely overlooked in current prevention discourse. As the profession positions itself as a core discipline in contemporary prevention science, it is both timely and instructive to revisit this legacy, which encompasses prevention as both a philosophy of practice and an empirically driven approach to intervention.
  
  
• Klawitter, M. with M. Edwards and R. Plotnick. (2001).Do Psychosocial Characteristics Affect Socioeconomic Outcomes?: The Case of Welfare Use by Young Women. Social Science Quarterly, December.
  
  We develop and estimate a model of social-psychological determinants of entry to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the primary cash welfare program in the United States for 60 years until replaced in 1996. The structural model holds that attitudes and personality characteristics influence a woman’s likelihood of becoming demographically and financially eligible for welfare and her willingness to bear the stigma of receiving benefits. These factors, in turn, affect the likelihood of actually going on welfare. We test for a relationship between social-psychological variables and welfare participation using data from the youngest cohorts of women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We estimate logit models of the probability of ever participating in AFDC up to age 25 and hazard models of the timing until first use of AFDC. The attitudes and personality characteristics in the empirical model are self-esteem, locus of control, attitudes toward school, attitudes toward women’s work and family roles, commitment to work, and aversion to accepting public assistance. We find strong associations between welfare use and several attitudes and personality characteristics, but most of the associations are not robust to the inclusion of exogenous personal and family background characteristics. Consistent, strong evidence suggests that more positive attitudes toward school lower the likelihood of using welfare and increase duration until first receipt.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J.C., Peck, L. & Lockshin A. (2001). Public Policies that Support Families with Young Children: Variation Across the U.S. States. In K. Vleminckx and T.M. Smeeding (eds.) Child Well-Being in Modern Nations. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., & Gornick, J.C. (2001). Gendering Welfare State Variation: Income Transfers, Employment Supports, and Family Poverty. In N. Hirschmann and U. Liebert (eds.) Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J.C. & Peck, L. (2001). Packaging Support for Low Income Families: Policy Variation Across the U.S. States. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 20(3), 457-486.
  
  This paper addresses a gap in state-level comparative social policy research by analyzing policies that support low-income families with children. Variation in state policy packages is measured by considering three characteristics of 11 social programs. Individual measures of policy are found to be weakly and inconsistently inter-correlated at the state level, but when cluster analysis is used to analyze multiple dimensions simultaneously, five clusters or regime types are identified that have distinctive policy approaches. These range from the most minimal provisions, to conservative approaches emphasizing private responsibility, to integrated approaches that combine generous direct assistance with employment support and policies that enforce family responsibility. A comparison of a subset of programs at two points in time (1994 and 1998) suggests that states made substantial changes in cash assistance and taxation policies after the 1996 federal welfare reforms. The magnitude and direction of these changes remained consistent with the state clusters identified in 1994.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Riccucci, N. & Lurie I. (2001). Achieving Goal Congruence in Complex Organizational Systems: The Case of Welfare Reform. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 11(2): 165-201.
  
  Public management and implementation scholars suggest that congruence between the formal goals of policy officials and the operative goals of implementing agencies may be a prerequisite for the achievement of policy objectives. Substantial research also suggests that the achievement of goal congruence can be difficult in complex implementation contexts.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Han, W.J., Waldfogel, J., & Garfinkel, I. (2001). Child Care in the Wake of Welfare Reform: The Impact of Government Subsidies on the Economic Well-Being of Single Mother Families. Social Services Review, 75(1), 29-59.
  
  Using microsimulation techniques to estimate the impact of welfare reform in New York, we find that 5 years after federal and state reforms child-care use and costs will rise substantially and families will bear most of these costs. When family incomes are adjusted for child-care costs, most single-mother families will continue to be poor even with greater earnings, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and food stamps. The distribution of child-care costs between government and families, and the implications for poverty, will depend on the extent to which government subsidizes the child-care costs of single mothers.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. with Maureen Waller. (2001). Effective child support policy for low-income families: Lessons from street level research, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 20(1), 89-110.
  
  Since 1984, policymakers have increasingly turned their attention to reforming the child support system. Despite this attention, the child support system has often failed to increase the economic security of single-parent families. This article analyzes findings from recent qualitative studies to explain why the child support system breaks down for so many low-income families. This research suggests that parents often prefer informal arrangements of support and do not comply with child support regulations they perceive to be unfair, counterproductive, or punitive. It also suggests that there is a mismatch between the premises and goals of child support policy and what low-income parents desire from the system. This mismatch impedes low-income parents' willingness and ability to comply with existing policy, even when they wish to do so, and will make reform difficult.
  
  
• Klawitter, M. with R. Plotnick and M. Edwards. (2000). Determinants of Initial Entry Onto Welfare by Young Women. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 19(4), 527-546.
  
  Using data from the youngest cohorts of women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study constructs Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) histories starting at age 15. Most young women go on AFDC for the first time between ages 18 and 25 and do so in the first few years after the birth of their first baby. These histories are used to estimate models of the determinants of initial use of AFDC. The models provide mixed evidence that the financial or other incentives of welfare policy affect the likelihood and timing of AFDC use. Benefit levels do not seem to affect participation, but the presence of a program for medically needy families who are not on welfare appears to decrease entrance to welfare for some groups. Parental poverty, family structure, academic achievement, attitudes toward school, and race are significantly related to the likelihood of participating in AFDC, and the rate of entry.
  
  
• Lukemeyer, A., Meyers, M.K. & Smeeding, T. (2000). Expensive Kids in Poor Families: Out of Pocket Expenditures for the Care of Disabled and Chronically Ill Children and Welfare Reform. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 62(2), 399-415.
  
  A significant minority of poor families care for children with disabilities and chronic illnesses. This study is among the first to explore private costs resulting from children's disabilities among low-income families. We find that almost half of the sample of California AFDC families with special-needs children incurred some direct, out-of-pocket expenses in the preceding month, and about 20% incurred total costs exceeding $100. We also estimate lost employment income among low- income mothers caring for children with disabilities. We conclude that both out-of- pocket expenses and foregone earnings represent a substantial burden for many low-income families with special-needs children, and we discuss the policy implications of these findings.
  
  
• Lundberg, S. (2000). "Inequality and Race: Models and Policy," (with Richard Startz), in Meritocracy and Economic Inequality, eds. Kenneth Arrow, Samuel Bowles and Steven Durlauf, Princeton University Press, pp. 269-295.
  
  The link to this abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Brady, H. & Seto, E. (2000). Expensive Children in Poor Families. San Francisco, California: Public Policy Institute of California.
  
  Although disabilities affect children of all income groups, poor children are far more likely to suffer from them. In this study, Marcia K. Meyers, Henry E. Brady, and Eva Y. Seto provide important new estimates of the private costs and public effects of childhood disabilities among welfare recipients. Based on over 2,000 interviews with household heads in Los Angeles, Alameda, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties, their estimates cover direct expenditures by families and indirect costs due to employment reductions. They also examine participation rates in public assistance programs and estimate the likelihood that families with disabled children will exit these programs to independence. They conclude that public assistance may be an essential part of an income-packaging strategy for many of these families.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. (2000). "Economic security for families with children," in The Child Welfare Challenge: Policy, Practice and Research, 2nd edition, Peter Pecora, James Whittaker, Anthony Maluccio, and Richard Barth, with Robert Plotnick, Aldine de Gruyter Publishing, 2000, 95-127.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. & Heintze, T. (1999). The Performance of the Child-Care Subsidy System. Social Service Review, 73(1), 37-64.
  
  Government funding has increased substantially in recent years for child-care subsidies targeted on the poor. Given the importance of child care for the achievement of public policy goals, including the promotion of families' economic self-sufficiency outside the welfare system, the performance of the child-care subsidy system deserves scrutiny. We use data from household-level surveys to compare the target efficiency, coverage adequacy, and equity of the child-care subsidy system for low-income and welfare-recipient families in California. The results suggest serious limitations in the system as of the mid-1990s. Low-income families in which mothers were employed or in education and training programs were very likely to be regularly paying for child care, and very few were receiving public subsidies targeted explicitly to the poor. These findings have important policy implications for new state child-care and welfare programs.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. & Dillon, N. (1999). Institutional Paradoxes: Why Welfare Workers Can't Reform Welfare. In G. Frederickson and J. Johnston (eds.) Public Administration as Reform and Innovation. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.
  
  The abstract of this article is not available.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. with Maureen Waller (1999). Child Support and Low-Income Families: Perceptions, Practices, and Policy (), San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.
  
  Child support has become a pressing policy concern in California. The shortcomings of the state’s child support system have prompted both a new state department and numerous proposals for reform. This study poses a key question: why does the child support system break down for so many low-income families? Part of the answer lies in the mismatch between child support policy and the experiences of many low-income parents. As a result of this mismatch, many poor parents prefer informal arrangements to full compliance with regulations that they perceive to be unfair, counterproductive, or punitive. The authors, Maureen Waller and Robert Plotnick, conclude that child support policy should honor both the need for effective enforcement and constraints on low-income families.
  
  
• Plotnick, R. with Laurie Deppman (1999). Assessing child abuse prevention and intervention programs using benefit-cost analysis. Child Welfare, 78:3, 381-407.
  
  Benefits and costs are discussed when child abuse prevention and intervention programs are proposed and evaluated, but systemic benefit-cost analysis as developed by economists has not been applied to such programs. This article presents the case for using benefit-cost analysis to structure evaluations of child abuse prevention and intervention programs.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K., Glaser, B. & MacDonald, K. (1998). On the Front Lines of Welfare Delivery: Are Workers Implementing Policy Reforms? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 17(1), 1-22.
  
  The impact of policy changes on the local delivery of services has been over- looked in several decades of largely unsuccessful efforts to "reform" welfare. This article uses one case of state-level welfare reform in the early 1990s to examine the implementation of policy changes in local welfare offices. Direct observation of transactions between welfare workers and clients suggests that policy reforms were not fully implemented by street-level bureaucrats. The instrumental transactions that continued to dominate interactions with clients were consistent with processing claims and rationing scarce resources, but they were poorly aligned with new policies aimed at changing the services and message delivered to welfare clients. The failure to fully implement reforms on the frontlines has implications for the achievement of policy objectives and for equity in service provision. Implementation issues will have even greater urgency as welfare is devolved from federal to state governments.
  
  
• Gornick, J.C., Meyers, M.K., & Ross, K.E. (1997). Supporting the Employment of Mothers: Policy Variation Across Fourteen Welfare States. Journal of European Social Policy, 7(1), 45-70.
  
  Despite their broadly similar political and economic systems, the rates and patterns ofmothers' employment vary considerably across industrialized countries. This variation raises questions about the role played by government policies in enabling mothers to choose employment and, in turn, in shaping both gender equality and family economic well-being. This paper compares fourteen OECD countries, as of the middle-to-late 1980s, with respect to their provision of policies that support mothers' employment: parental leave, child care, and the scheduling of public education. Newly gathered data on eighteen policy indicators are presented; these indicators were chosen to capture support for maternal employment, regardless of national intent. The indicators are then standardized, weighted, and summed into indices. By differentiating policies that affect maternal employment from family policies more generally, while simultaneously aggregating individual policies and policy features into policy "packages", these indices reveal dramatic cross-national differences in policy provisions. The empirical results reveal loose clusters of countries that correspond only partially to prevailing welfare state typologies. For mothers with preschool- aged children, only five of the fourteen countries provided reasonably complete and continuous benefits that supported their options for combining paid work with family responsibilities. In the remaining countries, government provisions were much more limited or discontinuous. The pattern of cross-national policy variation changed notably when policies affecting mothers with older children were examined. The links between these findings and three sets of outcomes are considered. The indices provide an improved measure of public support for maternal employment and are expected to help explain cross-national differences in the level and continuity of women's labor market attachment. Prior findings on women's labor supply provide initial support for this conclusion. These indices are also useful for contrasting family benefits that are provided through direct cash transfers with those that take the form of support for mothers' employment. Cross- national variation in combinations of transfers with employment supports is found to correspond to differences in child poverty rates. Finally, these policy findings contribute to the body of scholarship that seeks to integrate gender issues more explicitly into research on welfare state regimes. This study suggests that the country clusters identified in the dominant regime model fail to cohere with respect to the subset of family policies that specifically help women to combine paid work with parenting.
  
  
• Meyers, M.K. (1993). Child Care in JOBS Employment and Training Programs: What Difference Does Quality Make? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55(August), 767-783.
  
  Under the provisions of the Family Support Act of 1988, AFDC recipients in JOBS welfare-to-work programs are entitled to child care assistance during their education and job search activities. Data from a 1-year panel study of a JOBS program indicate that participants increased their use of substitute care and their use of licensed day care homes and centers, after beginning job readiness activities. The care they obtained was highly variable in terms of convenience and program quality, however, and compromises in the adequacy of care or in the congruence of care with parents' preferences increased participants' odds of dropping out of the program without completing education and job search activities.
  
  
• Lundberg, S. (1991). The Enforcement of Equal Opportunity Laws Under Imperfect Information: Affirmative Action and Alternatives. Quarterly Journal of Economics, pp. 309-326.
  
  A study was conducted to examine the enforcement of regulations covering employment discrimination under conditions of imperfect information. Since firms usually have imperfect information about individual productivity, they discriminate in employing workers to retain profit-maximizing conditions. Thus, firms generally attempt to evade such regulations. Results show that firms enjoy optimal conditions when they apply an affirmative action type policy for employment.