It has been more than a decade since major national legislation passed in August 1996, changing the structure of public assistance programs in the United States. During that time period, researchers from many fields have tried to evaluate the various effects of these changes on the behavior and well-being of low-income families. These policy changes have been among the most thoroughly evaluated public policies in history. Yet, it is striking how many questions about the effects of these changes remain unanswered. This chapter summarizes the state of this literature, discussing what we know and what we don't know about the effects of welfare reform.

“Welfare reform” refers primarily to the changes in public assistance programs that were enacted in 1996, particularly the creation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. TANF dollars were used by states (along with their own dollars) to fund redesigned cash assistance programs for low-income families that provided much stronger work incentives among recipients. Poor single-mother families were the group predominantly affected by these changes.

But the term welfare reform also is used loosely to refer to a broader set of policy changes. These include the demonstration projects on welfare-to-work efforts within specific states that replaced the then-existing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. States received federal waivers to enact these programs, which are known as “waiver demonstration projects.”