PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Francine D. Blau AU - Lawrence M. Kahn AU - Jane Waldfogel TI - The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Single Motherhood and Headship of Young Women AID - 10.3368/jhr.XXXIX.2.382 DP - 2004 Mar 31 TA - Journal of Human Resources PG - 382--404 VI - XXXIX IP - 2 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/2/382.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/2/382.full SO - J Hum Resour2004 Mar 31; XXXIX AB - This paper uses data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 Censuses to investigate the impact of welfare benefits across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) on the incidence of single motherhood and headship for young women. A contribution of the paper is the inclusion of both MSA fixed effects and MSA-specific time trends to account for fixed and trending unmeasured factors that could influence both welfare benefit levels and family formation. In such a model, we find no effect of welfare benefits on single motherhood for whites or blacks, and a positive effect of welfare benefits on single headship only for blacks.