PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hu, Wei-Yin
TI  - Marriage and Economic Incentives
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.38.4.942
DP  - 2003 Oct 02
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 942--963
VI  - 38
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/38/4/942.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/38/4/942.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2003 Oct 02; 38
AB  - Can economic incentives be used to affect marriage behavior and slow the growth of single-parent families? This paper provides new evidence on the effects of welfare benefit levels on the marital decisions of poor women. Exogenous variation in welfare benefit incentives arises from a randomized experiment carried out in California that allows me to measure responses beyond simple year-to-year changes in benefit levels. I find that a regime of lower benefits and stronger work incentives encourages married aid recipients to stay married, but has little effect on the probability that single-parent aid recipients marry. The effects on married recipients become larger over time, suggesting that long-run effects may exist.