Unintended Consequences of Welfare Reform: Evidence from Birth Outcomes of Aboriginal Australians

Arbeitspapier

Australia's 'income management' policy requires benefit recipients to spend at least half of their government transfers on essentials (e.g. food, housing). We estimate income management's impact on birth outcomes by exploiting its staggered rollout. By changing parents' consumption patterns, the policy aims to improve child outcomes. We find no evidence of this. Instead, our estimates suggest it reduced average birthweight by 95 grams and increased the probability of low birthweight by 3 percentage points. We explore the mechanisms that may explain this finding. Our study demonstrates how policies that are not carefully implemented and tested can unintentionally escalate existing inequalities.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13543

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation ; Health and Inequality ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
• Thema: welfare reform ; Aboriginal children ; birth outcomes ; income management ; unintended consequences

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Doyle, Mary-Alice ; Schurer, Stefanie ; Silburn, Sven
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (wo): Bonn
• (wann): 2020

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223985
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ