Reforming the Financial Incentives of the Welfare System

Arbeitspapier

This paper summarizes the findings from the Self Sufficiency Project: a large scale social experiment that is being conducted in Canada to evaluate the effect of high-powered financial incentives for full time work among former welfare recipients. The experimental results confirm the importance of financial incentives in the welfare participation and work decisions of lowincome single mothers. Enhanced incentives induce a significant fraction of welfare recipients to leave the program and enter work. They also have a relatively large anti-poverty effect. Moreover, when incentives are offered to relatively short-term recipients, they can actually save the government money.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 172

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
• Subject: Welfare reform ; financial incentives ; Workfare ; Sozialreform ; Selbsthilfe ; Ökonomischer Anreiz ; Sozialhilfeempfänger ; Arbeitsangebot ; Kanada

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hamermesh, Daniel S.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2000

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/21015
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET