Do generous social-assistance programs lead to dependence? A comparative study of lone-parent families in Germany and the United States

Abstract

"Despite receiving much more generous benefits, German lone-parent social-assistance recipients receive benefits for no longer periods of time, on average, than do U.S. lone-parent recipients. We find several reasons for this. Social assistance is used more often in Germany as very short-term bridge funding prior to the beginning of receipt of social-insurance benefits such as unemployment compensation. German lone-parent recipients have older children-a characteristic that leads to shorter spells. Repeat spells are considerably more common in the United States. Our findings point out a number of problems with analyses of social-assistance dynamics based on individual spells." (author's abstract