Content by Keyword: Poverty and Income Dynamics

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Administration of the Treatments

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. Administration of the Treatments

The cash transfer treatment, as has been noted, was defined by a guarantee and a tax rate.  The amount of payment actually received by a family was calculated according to information regarding non-experimental income, assets, and expenses contained in a monthly Income Report Form submitted by the family to the SIME/DIME payments office.  This i
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Counseling/Training Subsidy Treatment

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. Counseling/Training Subsidy Treatment

There were three variants of the counseling/training subsidy treatments:  counseling only, counseling combined with a 50% subsidy for approved education (5) or training courses, and counseling combined with a 100% subsidy for approved education or training.  Within a family enrolled in the counseling/training subsidy programs, every family memb
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Cash Transfer (NIT) Treatments

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. Cash Transfer (NIT) Treatments

The cash transfer treatment tested in SIME/DIME, as in the previous income maintenance experiments, consisted of a series of negative income tax plans.  A negative income tax is simply a cash transfer program in which there is (a) a maximum benefit (called the guarantee) for which a family is eligible if it has no other income and (b) a rate (cal
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The Design and Implementation of SIME/DIME

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. The Design and Implementation of SIME/DIME

SIME/DIME was launched in Seattle, Washington, in 1970 and extended in 1972 to a second site in Denver, Colorado.  The prime contractors for SIME/DIME were the States of Washington and Colorado, which subcontracted with SIR International for the design, operation, and research evaluation of the experiment.  SRI International, in turn, subcontrac
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The Treatment-Control Comparison

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. The Treatment-Control Comparison

We have been discussing random assignment of treatment to subjects in an experimental study.  One "treatment" that is frequently tested is no treatment at all, in order words the "control" treatment.  Families or individuals enrolled in the control group are not eligible for any special benefit or services, but provide the same information to th
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Size of Sample and Strength of Treatment

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. Size of Sample and Strength of Treatment

Other things equal, the larger the sample size, the greater the ability of an experiment to detect treatment effects and the greater the statistical confidence that can be placed in the findings.  Having a larger sample size than all the other income maintenance experiments combined, SIME/DIME produced the results to which one could attach the gr
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The Design of the Experiment

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. The Design of the Experiment

Given a will-defined treatment, an expected effect, and an expected cause-effect mechanism, the next step is to design an experiment that will clarify the cause-effect relationship.  Developing such a design is complex.  The basic aim, however, is straightforward; to introduce deliberate and systematic variations in the strength of the treatment
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The Propositions to be Tested

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. The Propositions to be Tested

In order to test whether something is the cause of something else, it is important not only to define the treatment and the hypothesized effect clearly and unambiguously, but also to be able to spell out the logic of the mechanism connecting the treatment to the hypothesized effect.  If the issue of policy interest cannot be given prior shape in
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Social Experimentation

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. Social Experimentation

A social experiment is a field test of one or more social programs — or, to use the phraseology of the natural sciences, a test of one or more "treatments."  A social experiment is a field test in the sense that families or individuals are actually enrolled in a pilot social program offering some type of special benefit or service.  It is "ex
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The Policy Context

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment. The Policy Context

In the mid 1960s, a consensus emerged among policy analysts and that there were potential problems with the existing set of transfer programs available to those in need.  Programs were believed to be fragmented and characterized by variations in benefit levels and administrative access among different types of families.  In particular, the worki
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Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-

Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment

The Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment (SIME/DIME) was the last in a series of four, large-scale income maintenance experiments undertaken in the late 1960s and early 1970s to measure the disincentive effects of cash transfers on the market work of those eligible for them. The purpose of the summary is to provide an overview of the rat
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Financial Condition and Health Care Burdens of

Financial Condition and Health Care Burdens of People in Deep Poverty

Americans living at the bottom of the income distribution often struggle to meet their basic needs on very limited incomes, even with the added assistance of government programs. The analyses in the brief describe the characteristics of the poor population; available income for those at the deepest levels of poverty; and average medical care needs
From: Financial Condition and Health Care Burdens of People in Deep Poverty
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Low-Wage Labor Market:

Low-Wage Labor Market: Challenges and Opportunities for Economic Self-Sufficiency

Contents Characterizing the Low-Wage Labor Market Policy Interventions Affecting Low-Wage Labor Markets Barriers to Entering the Low-Wage Labor Market Opportunities for Advancement and Benefits in the Low-Wage Labor Market Conclusions and Policy Implications
Study to Examine UI Eligibility Among Former TANF

Study to Examine UI Eligibility Among Former TANF Recipients: Evidence from New Jersey, Final Report

Contents Key Findings Conclusions Endnotes
Interactions of Workers and Firms in the Low-Wage

Interactions of Workers and Firms in the Low-Wage Labor Market

This paper presents an analysis of workers who persistently have low earnings in the labor market over a period of three or more years. Some of these workers manage to escape from this low-earning status over subsequent years, while many do not. Using data from the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) program at the U.S. Census Bureau,
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Past Work Experience and Earnings Trajectories of

Past Work Experience and Earnings Trajectories of Single Mothers

The increasing labor supply of single mothers in the US labor market in the 1990s is well documented, but due to data deficiencies it generally has been difficult to track the progress in the labor market of this group.
From: Past Work Experience and Earnings Trajectories of Single Mothers
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Dynamics of Being Disconnected from Work and TANF

Dynamics of Being Disconnected from Work and TANF

The report provides information on the population of people who are "disconnected", i.e., not working or living with a working spouse and not receiving welfare or disability benefits. The report uses nationally representative longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine movement into and out of being disc
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Economic Patterns of Single Mothers Following

Economic Patterns of Single Mothers Following Their Poverty Exits

This report examines the employment patterns and income progression of single mothers and their families for two years after they exit poverty. The study found that 30 percent of single mothers were poor but then left poverty. Work effort was high among single mothers who left poverty: on average they worked for three-quarters of the subsequent tw
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Characteristics of Low-Wage Workers and Their

Characteristics of Low-Wage Workers and Their Labor Market Experiences: Evidence from the Mid- to Late 1990s

With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), policymakers and researchers have recognized the importance of understanding the dynamics of the low-wage labor market and the economic opportunities in it. As large numbers of current and former recipients enter the low-wage labor market, it
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Profile of Families Cycling on and off Welfare

Profile of Families Cycling on and off Welfare

The report analyzes the experiences of welfare "cyclers" (those who received welfare benefits during three or more discrete spells during a four-year observation period) using five MDRC studies of welfare reform initiatives during the mid- to late-1990s. Overall, cyclers constituted a relatively small portion of the welfare caseload (9 percent). C
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Form Approved OMB# 0990-0379 Exp. Date 9/30/2020