Recidivism among Welfare Recipients: The Role of Neighborhood and Access to Employment

摘要

Work requirements and time limitations on benefits have forced welfare administrators to be more aggressive in moving welfare recipients into the workplace. This paper tracks a cohort of Georgia welfare leavers from 1992 to 2001, estimating the timing of recidivism using duration models. Of the case heads that leave the program within a two-year period, 15.3 percent remain out of welfare for less than three months and 35 percent returned within one year. There is also a relatively high risk of welfare recidivism for a much longer period than estimated in previous studies. Furthermore, successful employment may be affected not only by the presence of job growth but also by the industrial mix in which jobs are growing and by the residential location of welfare leavers.