PROMOTING ECONOMIC STABILITY AMIDST PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT AND COMPLEX FAMILY STRUCTURE

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this project is to identify state policy choices that increase household economic stability over time, either by promoting earnings stability or by supplementing income from earnings. It will examine the stability of household income as a function of specific state program rules for five key safety net programs- TANF, Medicaid/CHIP, SNAP, child care subsidies, and child support. Research questions include: (1) Are there state-level choices in the design and implementation of safety net programs associated with household income (in)stability? (2) If so, are such rules associated with unstable earnings, unstable benefit receipt, or some other mechanism? (3) Are there sub-populations that enjoy more or less stabilizing benefits from safety net programs? The 2004 and 2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) will be used in this project. A difference-in-differences technique will be used to estimate associations between state level safety net program rules and longitudinal measures of household income stability. Households led by single, less-educated mothers will be compared to married two-parent households with less education. State-level policy choices in the five safety net programs from 2004 to 2012 will be defined and coded using publicly available sources of information. Income stability will be defined using a set of measures that capture the frequency, magnitude, and direction of changes in total household income and its main components, earned income and means-tested income.