New Reform Strategies and Welfare Participation in Canada

Heterogeneous welfare reform policies and timing of those policies among Canadian provinces reveal new information about the roles of different policy tools in accounting for declines in welfare participation. Work requirements, diversion, earnings exemptions, and time limits—referred to as new reform strategies—appear to explain at least 16 percent of observed welfare participation declines from 1994 to 2005, more than eligibility requirements and benefit levels explain. Conservative estimates imply that welfare participation falls by 1.9 percentage points (21 percent relative to mean welfare participation) in provinces and years with stringent combinations of new reform strategies in place.Social Assistance, PRWORA, TANF, Work Requirements, Diversion, Earnings, Exemptions, Time Limits, Natural Experiments

New Reform Strategies and Welfare Participation in Canada

Heterogeneous welfare reform policies and timing of those policies among Canadian provinces reveal new information about the roles of different policy tools in accounting for declines in welfare participation. Work requirements, diversion, earnings exemptions, and time limits—referred to as new reform strategies—appear to explain at least 16 percent of observed welfare participation declines from 1994 to 2005, more than eligibility requirements and benefit levels explain. Conservative estimates imply that welfare participation falls by 1.9 percentage points (21 percent relative to mean welfare participation) in provinces and years with stringent combinations of new reform strategies in place

New Reform Strategies and Welfare Participation in Canada

Heterogeneous welfare reform policies and timing of those policies among Canadian provinces reveal new information about the roles of different policy tools in accounting for declines in welfare participation. Work requirements, diversion, earnings exemptions, and time limits—referred to as new reform strategies—appear to explain at least 16 percent of observed welfare participation declines from 1994 to 2005, more than eligibility requirements and benefit levels explain. Conservative estimates imply that welfare participation falls by 1.9 percentage points (21 percent relative to mean welfare participation) in provinces and years with stringent combinations of new reform strategies in place

The Grizzly, September 19, 1990

Election 1990: Hafer Speaks • Bon Voyage, Richter! • Meistersingers in England • Ursinus to Recycle? • Persian Gulf Dialog • Convocation 1990 • Ursinus Receives Japanese Grant • Slightly Steamed • The Phantoms of Ursinus • Ursinus Students Study in France • Red and Gold Hosts and Hostesses Needed • Berman Catalog Awarded • Urban Art • Bears Hound Hoyas in Opener • Field Hockey on the Ball • Bruins Club to Hold Fifth Bear Pack Run • Lady Bears Start Fast • Netters Improving • Score!! • Encourage Diversity • On Censoring Art • Not Oil Only • Prediction: War With Iraq • Going with the Flow • Bolt to Latest Discoverieshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1257/thumbnail.jp

Limbic Epileptogenesis in a Mouse Model of Fragile X Syndrome

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), caused by silencing of the Fmr1 gene, is the most common form of inherited mental retardation. Epilepsy is reported to occur in 20–25% of individuals with FXS. However, no overall increased excitability has been reported in Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice, except for increased sensitivity to auditory stimulation. Here, we report that kindling increased the expressions of Fmr1 mRNA and protein in the forebrain of wild-type (WT) mice. Kindling development was dramatically accelerated in Fmr1 KO mice, and Fmr1 KO mice also displayed prolonged electrographic seizures during kindling and more severe mossy fiber sprouting after kindling. The accelerated rate of kindling was partially repressed by inhibiting N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) with MK-801 or mGluR5 receptor with 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)-pyridine (MPEP). The rate of kindling development in WT was not effected by MPEP, however, suggesting that FMRP normally suppresses epileptogenic signaling downstream of metabolic glutamate receptors. Our findings reveal that FMRP plays a critical role in suppressing limbic epileptogenesis and predict that the enhanced susceptibility of patients with FXS to epilepsy is a direct consequence of the loss of an important homeostatic factor that mitigates vulnerability to excessive neuronal excitation

The Grizzly, October 16, 1990

Olin Walkway Changes the Face of Ursinus • Congressional Candidate Lewis Du Pont Smith Spurs Debate • The Minority Student Union: A Step Toward Diversity • USEAC Conference Bolsters Environmental Activism • Father Changes • Reflecting on Rosen • New Hang-out • The Replacements • Upcoming Berman • Cross Country Runs On • Soccer Wins Two • Netters Upset • Hockey Splits • Grubb Predicts Again • Football Refuses To Give Up • Letters: Complain, but Don\u27t Steal; Positive Pledging; Wismer Food: Quick Service and Healthy Variety • A Contradiction in American Beliefs • This is America? • A Spectacular Devicehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1261/thumbnail.jp

New Reform Strategies and Welfare Participation in Canada

This paper measures the extent to which declines in Canadian welfare participation were associated with novel and aggressive welfare reforms. Referred to as new reform strategies, these welfare policy variables are: work requirements, diversion, earning exemptions, and time limits. Controlling for province-specific benefit levels, eligibility requirements, GDP growth, labor market conditions and demographics, the data suggest that welfare participation rates were more than one percentage point lower (equivalent to at least a 13% decline in welfare participation) in provinces where new reforms were present. Work requirements with strong sanctions for non-compliance had the sharpest negative associations with participation rates. Adoption of new reform strategies explains at least 10 percent of observed declines in welfare participation from 1994 to 2009, roughly twice as much as cuts to benefit levels and stricter eligibility requirements can explain

Effects of New Welfare Reform Strategies on Welfare Participation: Microdata Estimates from Canada

This paper introduces newly coded information describing province- and year-specific variation in work requirements, diversion, earning exemptions, and time limits. This new information reveals a large decline in the chance of welfare participation of at least 1.1 percentage points (9.2% relative to the unconditional mean rate of participation) associated with stringent combinations of those four new welfare reforms, even after controlling for benefit levels, eligibility requirements, province-specific GDP growth and unemployment. These results replicate previous findings based on aggregate data and extend them with controls for individual-level characteristics. Microdata with individual-level characteristics enable estimates of the effects of new welfare reforms on 46 subpopulations, suggesting that immigrants, native Canadians, single parents and disabled people were far more effected by provinces' aggressive new attempts to limit welfare participation than other Canadians receiving social assistance