[gov2001-l] Bright/Konisky abstract

Please find our working title and abstract below. Comments are welcome. David and John Mothers' Transitions from Welfare to Work and Child Development: The Importance of Income Chase-Lansdale, et al (2003) argue that mothers' transitions off welfare and into employment do not have discernible effects on their children's cognitive, behavioral, and psychological development. Correcting for omitted variable bias by considering the variable effects of mothers' transitions depending on the income level of the family, we show that mothers' transitions do impact child development. Contrary to the expectation that mothers' transitions off of welfare and into employment will be detrimental to children's development, we find these transitions generally have positive effects for children from households below the poverty line. Our findings have important implications for evaluating recent welfare reform initiatives.