Do
Generous Social-Assistance Programs
Lead to Dependence? A Comparative Study of
Lone-Parent Families in Germany and the United States
Greg
J. Duncan and Wolfgang Voges
Abstract
Despite receiving much more generous benefits, German
lone-parent social-assistance recipients receive benefits for no
longer periods of time, on average, than do U.S. lone-parent recipients.
We find several reasons for this. Social assistance is used more
often in Germany as very short-term bridge funding prior to the
beginning of receipt of social-insurance benefits such as unemployment
compensation. German lone-parent recipients have older children—a
characteristic that leads to shorter spells. Repeat spells are considerably
more common in the United States. Our findings point out a number
of problems with analyses of social-assistance dynamics based on
individual spells.
Greg J. Duncan, School
of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Wolfgang Voges, Centre for Social Policy Research,
University of Bremen
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