Family Poverty, Unemployment Rates, and AFDC Payments: Trends among Blacks and Whites

Abstract

The author examines the relationships among the value of AFDC payments, unemployment rates, and family relationships in black and white poor families between 1973 and 1988. The study found that more American families became poor while AFDC payments were reduced in value, suggesting that reducing AFDC had little effect as a prod to remove American families from poverty. The study also showed that declines in poverty accompanied decreasing unemployment rates throughout the 1980s. The author argues that a more productive approach to addressing poverty revolves less around manipulating AFDC incentives as a means of welfare reform and more around reaffirming government's role in the economy. Industrial policy and welfare reform are discussed.

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