Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Program Participation, Family Dynamics and Economic Instability

(Poverty and Income Policy)

Tremendous disparities exist in newborn poverty rates across racial, ethnic, and economic lines. Low-income households make ends meet through a complex arrangement of formal and informal resources. Yet, when social programs are evaluated, analysis usually considers participation in a single program on a single outcome, ignoring the patchwork of programs that families rely upon to make it through each month. This panel will present work from three members of the ACF Family Self-Sufficiency and Stability Scholars Network to explore the relationships among family structure, program participation, and income stability using diverse data sets and methods. The first paper will examine transitions among TANF, SNAP, child care subsidies and Medicaid from 2000-2014, focusing on the dynamics of these programs before during and after the Great Recession. The second paper examines who may be particularly at risk of being pushed into poverty through the birth, adoption, or fostering of a child. The mathematics of poverty thresholds suggest the possibility that an additional child may “push” a low-income family that was slightly above the poverty line into poverty, as the addition of a new child increases their estimated family expenses and correspondingly their poverty threshold. The addition of a child also often brings about a host of changes in a family, particularly with respect to maternal employment (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013), and for this reason the causal impact of childbearing on family poverty is difficult to estimate. This paper teases out who may be particularly “at risk” of being pushed into poverty through the birth, adoption, or fostering of a child. To do so it examine trends in family demographics, childbirth, and family employment in order to construct and analyze counterfactual scenarios using American Community Survey (ACS) data. The third study explores the cross-program effect of participation in wide set of programs that low-income households often experience together— income support (Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Unemployment Insurance, Workers Compensation, General Assistance and TANF), health care (Medicare), housing assistance (public housing, Section 8, and subsidized rent), utility assistance (LIHEAP or included in public housing), and food and nutrition programs (WIC or SNAP). Together, these papers move forward research on understanding key policies around how social programs interact with family income and stability. The range of methods and data sources will explore multiple angles on this important issue.