The Self-Sufficiency Project was a Canadian

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

in the 1990s that provided a "generous, time-limited earnings supplement available to single parents who had been on

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

for a least a year, and who subsequently left welfare and found full-time work."Michalopoulos , Charles, Philip K. Robins and David Card. 2005. “When financial work incentives pay for themselves: evidence from a randomized social experiment for welfare recipients.” Journal of Public Economics. The study found that individuals offered a SSP

subsidy A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

were four percent more likely to stay on welfare to receive the benefit, but once people qualified for the SSP supplement, 44% left welfare dependence and were employed

full-time Full-time or Full Time may refer to: * Full-time job, employment in which a person works a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer * Full-time mother, a woman whose work is running or managing her family's home * Full-time fa ...

—defined as working at least 30 hours a week. The program was interesting since increases in employment boosted

payroll A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...

and other

taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

to a large enough extent that the subsidy paid for itself.

Studies

Berkeley's

David Card David Edward Card (born 1956) is a Canadian-American labour economist and professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his empirical contributio ...

has studied this extensively with several papers, revealing the aforementioned results.

References

Welfare in Canada Welfare reform Social security in Canada {{Canada-politics-stub

Studies

See also

References