Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/173945 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Papers No. W16/11
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
Increasing the labour market participation of single parents, whether to boost incomes or reduce welfare spending, is a major policy objectives in a number of countries. This paper presents causal evidence on the impact of work search requirements on single parents' transitions into work and onto other benefits. We use rich administrative data on all single parent welfare recipients, and apply a difference-in-differences approach that exploits the staggered roll-out of a reform in the UK that gradually decreased the age of the youngest child at which single parents lose the right to an unconditional cash benefit. Consistent with the predictions of a simple search model, the work search requirements have heterogeneous impacts, leading some single parents to move into work (especially those with strong previous labour market attachments), but leading some (especially those with weak previous labour market attachments) to move onto disability benefits (with no search conditionalities) or non-claimant unemployment.
Subjects: 
single parents
active labour market policy
work search conditionalities
JEL: 
H53
I38
J64
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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