Welfare remarriage and marital search

Abstract

Between 1964 and 1974 female-headed families with children under 18 increased as a proportion of all U.S. families by 40 percent. The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseload more than doubled. Though increased female headship undoubtedly contributed to caseload growth, the AFDC program's structure may have simultaneously encouraged female headship. By focusing payments on families without husbands, the program could conceivably promote marital separations and discourage remarriage, thereby contributing to the growth of femaleheaded families.' The testing of such hypotheses bears on a number of policy issues. We need to understand the degree to which the AFDC program's goal of alleviating the financial problems of female-headed families induces the formation and continuation of such families. In addition, we need to determine the extent to which growth in the AFDC caseload is caused by these separation and remarriage incentives. Finally, we need to know whether alternative support programs could reduce the problem. This paper focuses upon one aspect of this complex issue: the effect of AFDC transfers on the probability of remarriage for female heads with children. In the first section search theory is applied to marriage, establishing hypotheses on the links between remarriage, AFDC transfers, and other observable socioeconomic variables. The second section presents empirical tests of these hypotheses.

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