Migration Consequences of Welfare Reform

Neeraj Kaushal, City University of New York
Gregg VanRyzin, City University of New York

In this paper, we investigate whether recent state and federal changes in welfare policy have affected the migration of low-educated unmarried women. We find that welfare reform has motivated low-educated women to move greater distances more frequently, and a large number of these moves are associated with employment. Our analysis also indicates that welfare reform has led to more local (i.e., within county) migration that is associated with employment, although these estimates are not robust to estimation method. The close link between residential moves and employment in the post-reform period is consistent with the idea that welfare reform has motivated people to move for economic reasons. This suggests that the traditional way of thinking about the effect of welfare on migration - as a strategic move to obtain higher benefits - is inadequate. Welfare appears to have a much larger effect on residential location because of its relationship to employment.