Hilary Hoynes

Hilary Hoynes will work on a series of papers examining the effects of welfare reform in the United States on children’s long-term social and economic outcomes. She will revisit five randomized experiments conducted by MDRC in the years leading up to the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. In these experiments, welfare recipients were separated into two groups: one group would experience welfare reform policies and the other would continue to receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children program benefits. She will investigate whether “work-first” welfare policies impacted children’s long-term earnings and employment, mortality, criminal justice involvement, and welfare participation.