Jane Waldfogel and Neeraj Kaushal Paper Selected as Top Twenty Best Articles of 2008

Announcement
June 4, 2009

An article co-authored by professor Jane Waldfogel, associate professor Neeraj Kaushal, and alumna Qin Gao (‘05PhD) of the Columbia University School of Social Work has been selected as one of the twenty best articles of 2008 in the annual Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research competition.

Entitled “Welfare Reform and Family Expenditures: How are Single Mothers Adapting to the New Welfare and Work Regime?” their article examined the association between welfare reform and expenditure patterns of poor single-mother families.  The authors found that while welfare reform has not changed total expenditures in families headed by low-educated single mothers, it has shifted expenditures towards items that facilitate work outside the home, such as spending on transportation, food away from home, and adult clothing, footwear and accessories.  In contrast, welfare reform is not found to be related to changes in expenditures on child care or learning and enrichment activities. 

The Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award is a joint project of the Center for Families at Purdue University, and the Boston College Center for Work and Family. The purpose of this award is to raise the awareness of excellent work-family research among the scholar, consultant and practitioner communities, to foster debate about what the standards of quality for work-family research should be and ultimately to raise those standards. The award identifies the “best of the best” on which to base future research.

The top articles were selected via a rigorous process.  A committee of over 35 leading scholars from 12 countries examined over 2,000 articles published in 74 leading English-language journals from around the world.