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The Geography of Opportunity and Vulnerability: State TANF Policy, Welfare Dependency, and the Diversity of Welfare Caseloads Author: Juan O. Sandoval Dissertation School: University of California, Berkeley Pages: 302 Publication Date: May 2002 Availability: Access Number: 10802 Abstract: The 1996 welfare-to-work altered social policy for poor families. My dissertation was designed to study the decline of state aggregate caseloads and individual work and welfare outcomes. By studying state aggregate data and looking at individual welfare-to-work transitions, I evaluate the incremental effects of the 1996 welfare-to-work law on reduced welfare dependency. This research indicates that the 1996 welfare-to-work law has had a considerable impact on reducing caseloads. The research also shows that four welfare paradigms have emerged: 1) social investment; 2) social reform; 3) social retrenchment; and 4) social disinvestment. These paradigms have a strong association with the racial composition of TANF caseloads. My research also provides evidence that long-term dependency has significantly been reduced and work participation among welfare recipients has increased since 1996. I used a discrete-change multi-nominal model to predict change in employment status as a function of: 1) vehicle ownership; 2) human capital; 3) social capital; 4) cultural capital; 5) neighborhood characteristics; and 6) state TANF policy. My dissertation concludes with a discussion about reforming welfare reform. Although state TANF programs are maturing and state policymakers are learning from their experiences, the economic crisis in many states may inevitably damage programs that promote work, personal responsibility, and family formation. I argued that if welfare reform is going to continue to be successful, policy initiative need to address four barriers that will facilitate the transition from welfare to work: 1) structural barriers; 2) temporal barriers; 3) permanent barriers; and 4) unanticipated barriers. Welfare reform and a booming economy appear to be the panacea that people were looking for, but "ending welfare as we know it: will prove to be a bitter illusion and a hard pill to swallow if it augments the social forces of structural entrapment and forcible socioeconomic marginalization. |
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