TY  - JOUR
A1  - Biegert, Thomas
A1  - Brady, David
A1  - Hipp, Lena
T1  - Cross-national variation in the relationship between welfare generosity and single mother employment
JF  - The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
N2  - Reform of the U.S. welfare system in 1996 spurred claims that cuts to welfare programs effectively incentivized single mothers to find employment. It is difficult to assess the veracity of those claims, however, absent evidence of how the relationship between welfare benefits and single mother employment generalizes across countries. This study combines data from the European Union Labour Force Survey and the U.S. Current Population Survey (1992-2015) into one of the largest samples of single mothers ever, testing the relationships between welfare generosity and single mothers’ employment and work hours. We find no consistent evidence of a negative relationship between welfare generosity and single mother employment outcomes. Rather, we find tremendous cross-national heterogeneity, which does not clearly correspond to well-known institutional variations. Our findings demonstrate the limitations of single country studies and the pervasive, salient interactions between institutional contexts and social policies.
KW  - single mothers
KW  - employment
KW  - welfare state benefits
KW  - cross-national
KW  - heterogeneity
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221120760
SN  - 0002-7162
SN  - 1552-3349
VL  - 702
IS  - 1
SP  - 37
EP  - 54
PB  - SAGE Publishing
CY  - Thousand Oaks
ER  -