Using carrots and sticks: welfare reform rewarded work and discouraged self-defeating behavior. What else needs to be done?(THE BIG DEBATES)

IN THE LAST DECADE, WE HAVE SEEN that an effective approach to reducing poverty requires changes in personal behavior as well as government support. Further, we have learned that by judiciously applying policies that demand and then reward good behavior--what might be called carrots-and-sticks policies--we can induce and maintain the behavior that leads to reduced poverty. Reviewing the record of the past decade suggests the principles that should guide future efforts.

During the 1960s, child poverty fell by more than half, to 14 percent. In the subsequent three decades, ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.