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Title: The Impact of AFDC on Young Women's Childbearing Decisions
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Acs, Gregory P.
The Impact of AFDC on Young Women's Childbearing Decisions
Working Paper, The Urban Institute, Washington DC, May 1993.
Also: http://osu.worldcat.org/title/impact-of-afdc-on-young-womens-childbearing-decisions/oclc/033027490
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Urban Institute
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Child Health; Childbearing; Fertility; First Birth; Household Composition; Marital Status; Maternal Employment; Sexual Activity; State Welfare; Welfare; Women

Also: Presented: Cincinnati, OH, Population Association of America Meetings, April 1993.

The young woman, dependent on public assistance, having child after child has reemerged as the favorite symbol for politicians decrying the U.S. welfare system. Since the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program provides support to poor families with children, with larger grants going to households with more children, concern over AFDCs pro-natalist effects have a strong theoretical foundation--AFDC lowers the cost of having children. Research in this area has focused on first births to unwed teenagers and has found scant evidence supporting the contention that AFDC promotes out-of-wedlock births. This paper seeks to re-evaluate the relationship between AFDC and childbearing by focusing not just on births to teenagers but also on births to women in their mid-twenties using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Using discrete time hazard models, I examine the impact of AFDC on births directly associated with welfare receipt, on out-of-wedlock births, and on all births. I also examine the importance of AFDC on subsequent births--births to women who already have a child. I find that AFDC generosity has very modest pro-natalist effects at best on first births and virtually no effect on subsequent births. Furthermore, exposure to AFDC does not encourage future childbearing although mothers who received AFDC in the past are more likely to receive AFDC upon having a second child.

Bibliography Citation
Acs, Gregory P. "The Impact of AFDC on Young Women's Childbearing Decisions." Working Paper, The Urban Institute, Washington DC, May 1993.