This study uses Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data to test one of the assumptions of the welfare reform efforts that produced the Family Support Act of 1988. Those efforts assumed that sustained labor-force participation enables the working poor to escape poverty. The results of the study question that assumption, indicating that most of those in a select group of working-poor households who were poor all the time or some of the time worked throughout the entire study period. Only some subgroups could benefit from increased labor-force participation. Expanding the use of the Earned Income Tax Credit is discussed in light of these findings.
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