What Did the "Illegitimacy Bonus" Reward?
54 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2004 Last revised: 6 Apr 2022
Date Written: August 2004
Abstract
The 'Illegitimacy Bonus,' part of 1996 welfare reform legislation, awarded $100 million in each of five years to the five states with the greatest reduction in the nonmarital birth ratio. Three states -- Alabama, Michigan, and Washington DC -- won bonuses four or more times each, claiming nearly 60% of award monies. However, in none of these three states was the decline in the nonmarital birth ratio linked to increases in proportions married, and only in Michigan was it linked to declines in nonmarital (relative to marital) fertility within demographic groups, behavioral changes that the Illegitimacy Bonus was presumably intended to reward. Shifts in the racial composition of births accounted for 1/3 (Michigan), 2/3 (DC) or all (Alabama) of the decline in the nonmarital birth ratio. The non-marital birth ratio fell most in DC, averaging 1.5 percentage points per year over the award period. However, the number of black children born in DC fell by nearly one half from 1991 to 2001. Changes in population composition alone primarily a decline in the number of black women aged 15 to 34 can account for the entire decline in the nonmarital birth ratio in DC between 1990 and 2000.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Paper statistics
Recommended Papers
-
Subsidizing the Stork: New Evidence on Tax Incentives and Fertility
-
Is There an Effect of Incremental Welfare Benefits on Fertility Behavior? A Look at the Family Cap
-
Fertility and Financial Incentives in France
By Guy Laroque and Bernard Salanie
-
Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return-to-Work? Evidence from a True Natural Experiment
By Rafael Lalive and Josef Zweimüller
-
Fertility, Female Labor Supply and Public Policy
By Patricia F. Apps and Ray Rees
-
Does Fertility Respond to Financial Incentives?
By Guy Laroque and Bernard Salanie
-
Does Fertility Respond to Financial Incentives?
By Guy Laroque and Bernard Salanie
-
Welfare Reform and Non-Marital Fertility in the 1990s: Evidence from Birth Records
By Theodore Joyce, Robert Kaestner, ...