People and places: Welfare reform and the separate effect of caseload characteristics and local conditions

The shift from hardship alleviation policies to behavior-focused policies in cash assistance highlight competing theoretical approaches to poverty: those focused on individuals' characteristics and those focused on structural factors lying beyond the control of the individual. This research bridges these approaches by examining the question, do local conditions have a separate and independent effect from cash assistance caseload characteristics on affecting caseload declines? The results indicate a separate and independent effect of both local conditions and caseload characteristics in explaining caseload declines suggesting that caseload reductions and the economic sustainability of recipients are affected by individual characteristics, but also by where recipients live.