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Objective. Over the past decade, federal and state governments have substantially liberalized asset limits in welfare. This article examines whether this policy change promotes asset accumulation among the target population of actual and potential welfare recipients.Methods. Utilizing household data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics as well as state data, this study employs a difference‐in‐difference approach in order to determine whether state asset limits affect the target population's financial and vehicle asset accumulation. This study develops a new policy measure that considers the time period following the adoption of liberalized asset limits.Results. Analysis results suggest that increased asset limits may have successfully encouraged the target population's asset accumulation. The earlier a state raised its asset limit, the more likely welfare recipients were to accumulate financial assets and to possess bank accounts.Conclusion. It is recommended to liberalize asset eligibility rules to promote long‐term economic advancement of poor households.

Welfare reform in the United States restricted non-citizens' eligibility for public assistance programs and strengthened economic benefits from naturalization. We examine the impact of these policy changes on elderly immigrants' naturalization, considering their level of need for public benefits. Using individual data from the Current Population Survey as well as state-level data, we employ a differences-in-differences approach to consider variations in time, state policy, and probability of Medicaid participation. Results show that naturalization significantly increased among elderly immigrants who were likely to participate in Medicaid, suggesting that elderly immigrants in need of Medicaid became naturalized to maintain their eligibility for public benefits after welfare reform.

In economic hard-times, do Americans call for increases in governmental assistance, or do they clamor for declines in government assistance? We address this question by identifying the impact of state-level macroeconomic conditions on public support for social welfare spending. We analyze individual-level data from the 1984-2000 National Election Studies, combined with state-level macroeconomic indicators of inflation, unemployment, and productivity. We find that state-level inflation, not state-level unemployment nor state-level productivity, consistently and consequentially shapes citizens' support for social welfare. With rising inflation, Americans become more supportive of means-tested social welfare spending. Our analyses generally reaffirm the value Americans place on the social welfare safety net, especially during times of economic duress. When the going gets tough, Americans reach out, rather than pull back. Adapted from the source document.

Objective: We examine the effects of Child Development Accounts (CDAs) on parenting stress and practices. Methods: We use data from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment. SEED OK selected caregivers of infants from Oklahoma birth certificates using a probability sampling method, randomly assigned caregivers to the treatment ( n = 1,132) or control group ( n = 1,098), and provided college savings incentives only to the treatment group. We run regression analyses on a parenting stress scale and six continuous measures of parenting practices. Results: There were no significant differences in parenting outcomes between treatment and control groups, with the exception of frequency of screaming at the child. CDAs have more salient effects on American Indians than on other groups. Conclusions: We present weak evidence for CDAs' positive impacts on parenting outcomes. Further research is needed to determine whether these initial results change over time.

This study examines associations between the ability to speak English, community language resources, and employment among immigrants in Western New York, United States. Building on existing literature that demonstrates the importance of individual human capital (English proficiency), social networks, and ethnic community resources in immigrants' labor market outcomes, we introduce the concept of community-level language resources as a facilitator of immigrants' economic integration. Using data from the American Community Survey and a measure of community language resources (the percentage of bilinguals among people speaking the same language in a community), we find that greater community language resources are associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of being employed for immigrant men with limited English proficiency. Regression analyses also show that neither individual English proficiency nor community language resources are significantly associated with immigrant women's probability of being employed. This study calls for attention to community language resources and individual human capital when designing research on and developing policies for immigrant populations. Findings also show the need for a gender-aware approach to research and practice with immigrant communities.