The Effect of Afdc Guarantees on Poor Children's Educational Attainment.

The dissertation explores the impact of the largest means-tested cash program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), on poor children's educational attainment. The effect of the size of the AFDC guarantee is examined, as well as variation in the impact of the AFDC guarantees according to characteristics of poor families and the economic conditions of the areas in which they live. The dataset used for the study is a subsample of the Panel Study for Income Dynamics (PSID) and consists of annual data gathered over an eighteen year period on 578 children from single parent families. The longitudinal nature of the data makes it possible to determine whether the amount of welfare available to the children during the five years following the separation of their parents had an impact on the children's educational attainment. Ordinary Least Squares regression is used; family and community characteristics are controlled. The size of the AFDC guarantee is found to have a positive impact on children's educational attainment. The impact is particularly strong for children if the county unemployment rate was greater than 8% at the time the parents separated and for children whose mothers reported having one or no relatives to turn to in an emergency. In addition, children who did not have characteristics that have been identified in the literature as being associated with low educational attainment were most likely to benefit from high AFDC guarantees. In contrast, the educational attainment of children who were poor before their parents separated, who had many siblings, or whose mothers had a ninth grade education or less benefited little from high guarantees, if at all. The county unemployment rate when the child was sixteen years old was negatively associated with children's educational attainment. Social support available to the mother was also important: help available from others had a positive impact; help given to non-family members had a negative impact on the children's educational attainment.Ph.D.Public policyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161520/1/8720251.pd