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Project Description

This study uses state administrative micro-data to examine California’s welfare caseload trends since the late 1980s. The use of micro-data allows the expansion of the analysis of welfare caseload trends in two important dimensions. First, the identification of the demographic characteristics of individual aid recipients, which will allow us to examine how the composition of California’s welfare caseload has changed over the last 14 years, and help us to identify aspects of caseload dynamics that are hidden in aggregate numbers. In particular, we can assess whether under welfare reform certain groups are being “left behind” in the sense that they represent a growing share of the state’s declining welfare caseload. Second, to track individual aid recipients — and the cases they are associated with — over time, which allows us to broaden our understanding of welfare caseload dynamics by measuring entry and exit rates, changes in case composition, and intrastate migration of aid recipients.

Project duration: - Mar 2001

Sites studied include CA

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

Full population of AFDC/CalWORKs recipients between January 1987 and December 2000.

Recent Findings in Brief

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