title: Health-related effects of welfare-to-work policies.
abstract: Non-health related policies may have consequences for health that are more important than the outcomes they were originally designed to produce. In this paper we evaluate the effects of welfare-to-work programs (WTW) on physical and mental health status and a variety of health behaviors. The paper is based on data from the minimum income program of Madrid's Government (IMI). We match the program's administrative records (39,200 households)--covering the whole history of the program from the second half of 1990 to 2001--with a specific survey of former recipients who took part in different work-related activities conducted in 2001 (2300 households). We perform propensity score matching to find that both health status--including physical and mental health problems--and behaviors outcomes were modestly better for those individuals who had taken part in work-related activities. These results offer support for the contention that welfare-to-work policies may have positive unintended health effects.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Paseo Artilleros s/n, 28032 Madrid, Spain. luis.ayala@urjc.es
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ayala
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011640:Public Policy; D012946:Social Welfare; D013030:Spain
keywords: Health behaviors; Health outcomes; Propensity score matching; Spain; Welfare-to-work