TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Knoef, Marike
AU  - Ours, Jan C. van
        TI  - How to Stimulate Single Mothers on Welfare to Find a Job: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
        PY  - 2014/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 8188
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp8188
        AB  - We present the results from a natural experiment in which single mothers on welfare were stimulated to find a job. Two policy instruments were introduced: an earnings disregard and job creation. The experiment was performed at the level of municipalities in The Netherlands, a country with relatively high benefits and low incentives for single mothers to leave welfare for work. In our analysis, we make a distinction between native and immigrant welfare recipients. For immigrant single mothers and some groups of native single mothers we find a positive employment effect of an earnings disregard. Job creation in addition to the earnings disregard increased working hours for some groups of single mothers. Although the outflow from welfare was not affected, welfare expenditures were reduced.
        KW  - natural experiment
KW  - single mothers
KW  - welfare
        ER  -