Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Recent studies have demonstrated different findings regarding whether TANF (the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) has affected poverty in the US. In order to add to this discourse and perhaps offer more conclusive findings, this study examined whether TANF affected poverty change among single mothers and their families, using the March CPS (the Current Population Survey) of the FY 1991 – 2002.

Any conclusions about how TANF affects poverty can depend on the particular way in which poverty is defined and measured. Thus, this study analyzed the relationship between TANF and poverty, based on six outcomes, 1) official income, 2) alternative income, 3) official poverty rate, 4) alternative poverty rate, 5) official poverty gap, and 6) alternative poverty gap, in order to obtain more complete results.

The alternative poverty measures used in this study were imputed based on the NRC (the National Research Council) panel's recommendations. For example, alternative income (which can also be used for creating the alternative poverty rate and the alternative poverty gap) was imputed as following; official income plus non-cash benefits, plus Medicaid and Medicare, plus the EITC refunds, less taxes, less work-related expenses including childcare costs, and less the medical out of pocket expenses. Also, cash benefits and non-cash benefits were adjusted for their under-reporting in CPS. Technically, multiple regressions and logistic regressions were utilized for this study.

The results indicate that TANF's impacts on poverty largely depend on poverty measures. The alternative poverty measures alter our view on the relationship between TANF and poverty. Somewhat consistent results were found between income and the poverty rate, in terms of the effects of TANF on poverty. TANF has significant impacts on both alternative income and the alternative poverty rate, while there are no significant relationships between TANF and the official counterparts. Specifically, TANF decreases alternative income, whereas no significant impact was found for official income. Likewise, a positive relationship was found between TANF and the alternative poverty rate, suggesting that TANF increases the alternative poverty rate. There is, however, no significant relationship between TANF and the official poverty rate. Somewhat inconsistent results were found between the poverty rate (or income) and the poverty gap. The findings indicate that TANF has no significant effects on both the official poverty gap and the alternative poverty gap.

The alternative poverty measures may stand for more exact financial well-being among single mothers, because alternative income, for example, is closer to women's real consumption level, than official income. Thus, I believe that alternative poverty measures used in this study more accurately captured the effects of TANF on poverty, than the official poverty measures. Also, these multiangulating results obtained by using multiple poverty measures would provide a more secure basis for building suggestions for the TANF reauthorization, than using single measure.