The Washington Times reports on

The Washington Times reports on two studies, by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Heritage Foundation, both of which lend support to the Administration’s “work first” approach to the next round of welfare reform. The Michigan study concluded that:
“welfare reform was a major factor in increasing incomes. Regardless of state unemployment rates, they said, families with the highest income gains lived in states with strong welfare-to-work incentives, strict penalties for not cooperating with welfare agencies or strict time limits on benefits.”
The Heritage study found that “Low work levels by parents are a major cause of child poverty”–a conclusion that should not be surprising, but will be, I suppose, to some.
These findings are consistent with our own work on welfare reform, in which we contrasted Wisconsin’s implementation of welfare reform (strict work requirements) with Minnesota’s (no strict requirements). A short version of our article is reproduced here.

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