ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of welfare-to-work policies and seeking to deduce what portion of the observed effect is due to policy design and what is attributable to other factors. It focuses on two successful and very influential implementations, the one in Riverside County, and the Portland Welfare-to-Work Programme. The chapter shows that the issue of the durability of programme impacts: are programmes effective in the long term? Is people's behaviour changed by welfare-to-work programmes and their living standards improved for years to come, or is the impact, however large, merely transient? It provides the factors that contributed to the success of welfare-to-work programmes all included two terms to take into account how long after the random assignment of the programme and control groups programme impacts were measured. The chapter considers the relative success of the 'tough love' approach embodied in an emphasis on job search strategies and sanctioning and, thus, supports claims of the superiority of a work-first approach.
