What Did the "Illegitimacy Bonus" Reward?
-
Sanders Korenman
Abstract
The Out-Of-Wedlock Birth Reduction Bonus (“Illegitimacy Bonus”), part of the 1996 welfare reform legislation, awarded up to $100 million in each of five years to the five states with the greatest reduction in the non-marital birth ratio. Alabama, Michigan, and Washington D.C. each won bonuses four or more times, claiming nearly 60% of award monies. However, for these bonus winners, changes in the racial composition of births accounted for between one-third and 100% of the decline in the non-marital birth ratio. The non-marital birth ratio fell most in D.C., averaging 1.5 percentage points per year over the award period. Declines in non-marital birth ratios in Michigan and Alabama were slight. But the non-marital birth ratio fell in D.C. in large part because the number of black children born there fell dramatically, and a decline in the black population alone accounted for one third of the decline in black births. Within-race changes in non-marital birth ratios raised the overall non-marital birth ratio 0.5 percentage points in Alabama, and lowered the non-marital ratio by one percentage point in Michigan, and by about three percentage points in Washington D.C. Because it was based on unadjusted changes in states’ aggregate non-martial birth ratios, the Illegitimacy Bonus rewarded racial/ethnic compositional changes at least as much as it rewarded declining non-marital birth ratios within major racial/ethnic groups.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Advances Article
- Second-Best Climate Agreements and Technology Policy
- An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communication
- Does the Open Economy Assumption Really Mean That Labor Bears the Burden of a Capital Income Tax?
- Auction Bids and Shopping Choices
- Prescription Drug Advertising and Patient Compliance: A Physician Agency Approach
- The Impact of Midwifery-Promoting Public Policies on Medical Interventions and Health Outcomes
- A Simple Model of Entry That Increases Price Levels and Price Dispersion
- Do Teachers Really Leave for Higher Paying Jobs in Alternative Occupations?
- The Impact of Driver Cell Phone Use on Accidents
- Topics Article
- The Marginal Cost of Funds from Public Sector Borrowing
- Did the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Accurately Assess Economic Losses?
- The Firm's Cost of Capital, Its Effective Marginal Tax Rate, and the Value of the Government's Tax Claim
- Do Plants Overcomply with Water Pollution Regulations? The Role of Discharge Variability
- The Impact of Delivery Synergies on Bidding in the Georgia School Milk Market
- Credit Constraints and Contract Enforcement
- The Disadvantages of Aggregate Deductibles
- What Did the "Illegitimacy Bonus" Reward?
- Does Integrating Economic and Biological Systems Matter for Public Policy? The Case of Yellowstone Lake
- Academic Performance and Part-Time Employment among High School Seniors
- Designing Auctions in R&D: Optimal Licensing of an Innovation
- Capital Movements and the Political Economy of Trade Policy
- Increasing Returns, Input-Output Linkages, and Technological Leapfrogging
- Searching For Better Prospects: Endogenizing Falling Job Tenure and Private Pension Coverage
- The Relationship between Beer Taxes, Other Alcohol Policies, and Child Homicide Deaths
- Consumption Mobility in the United States: Evidence from Two Panel Data Sets
- Corruption, Environmental Resources, and International Trade
- The Impact of Digital File Sharing on the Music Industry: An Empirical Analysis
- Relative Performance, Risk and Entry in the Mutual Fund Industry
- Public Complaints and Alberta's Environmental Regulation
- The Effects of Political Action Committee Contributions on Medical Liability Legislation
- Absorptive Capacity in R&D Joint Ventures When Basic Research Is Costly
- Did the Death of Australian Inheritance Taxes Affect Deaths?
- After the Traffic Stops: Officer Characteristics and Enforcement Actions
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Advances Article
- Second-Best Climate Agreements and Technology Policy
- An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communication
- Does the Open Economy Assumption Really Mean That Labor Bears the Burden of a Capital Income Tax?
- Auction Bids and Shopping Choices
- Prescription Drug Advertising and Patient Compliance: A Physician Agency Approach
- The Impact of Midwifery-Promoting Public Policies on Medical Interventions and Health Outcomes
- A Simple Model of Entry That Increases Price Levels and Price Dispersion
- Do Teachers Really Leave for Higher Paying Jobs in Alternative Occupations?
- The Impact of Driver Cell Phone Use on Accidents
- Topics Article
- The Marginal Cost of Funds from Public Sector Borrowing
- Did the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Accurately Assess Economic Losses?
- The Firm's Cost of Capital, Its Effective Marginal Tax Rate, and the Value of the Government's Tax Claim
- Do Plants Overcomply with Water Pollution Regulations? The Role of Discharge Variability
- The Impact of Delivery Synergies on Bidding in the Georgia School Milk Market
- Credit Constraints and Contract Enforcement
- The Disadvantages of Aggregate Deductibles
- What Did the "Illegitimacy Bonus" Reward?
- Does Integrating Economic and Biological Systems Matter for Public Policy? The Case of Yellowstone Lake
- Academic Performance and Part-Time Employment among High School Seniors
- Designing Auctions in R&D: Optimal Licensing of an Innovation
- Capital Movements and the Political Economy of Trade Policy
- Increasing Returns, Input-Output Linkages, and Technological Leapfrogging
- Searching For Better Prospects: Endogenizing Falling Job Tenure and Private Pension Coverage
- The Relationship between Beer Taxes, Other Alcohol Policies, and Child Homicide Deaths
- Consumption Mobility in the United States: Evidence from Two Panel Data Sets
- Corruption, Environmental Resources, and International Trade
- The Impact of Digital File Sharing on the Music Industry: An Empirical Analysis
- Relative Performance, Risk and Entry in the Mutual Fund Industry
- Public Complaints and Alberta's Environmental Regulation
- The Effects of Political Action Committee Contributions on Medical Liability Legislation
- Absorptive Capacity in R&D Joint Ventures When Basic Research Is Costly
- Did the Death of Australian Inheritance Taxes Affect Deaths?
- After the Traffic Stops: Officer Characteristics and Enforcement Actions
