Rosemary A. Stevens - Welfare Reform: A Comparative Assessment of the French and U. S. Experiences

WELFARE
REFORM

Neil Gilbert, editor

Dalmer D. Hoskins, Donate Dobbernack, and Christiane Kuptsch, editors

Neil Gilbert and Rebecca A. Van Voorhis, editors

Aviva Ron and Xenia Scheil-Adlung, editors

Frank S. Bloch and Rienk Prins, editors

Xenia Scheil-Adlung, editor

Patricia Weinert, Michle Baukens, Patrick Bollrot, Marina Pineschi-Gapnne, and Ulrich Walwei, editors

Roland Sigg and Christina Behrendt, editors

Neil Gilbert and Rebecca A. Van Voorhis, editors

Neil Gilbert and Antoine Parent, editors

A Comparative Assessment of the French and U.S. Experiences

Neil Gilbert
Antoine Parent

editors

International Social Security Series
Volume 10

The International Social Security Association (ISSA) was founded in 1927. It is a nonprofit international organization bringing together institutions and administrative bodies from countries all over the world dealing with all forms of compulsory social protection. The objective of the ISSA is to cooperate at the international level, in the promotion and development of social security throughout the world, primarily by improving techniques and administration in order to advance peoples social and economic conditions on the basis of social justice.

The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies, and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Social Security Association of the opinions expressed by them.

First published 2004 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge

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Copyright 2004 by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2003054124

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Welfare reform : a comparative assessment of the French and U.S. experiences / Neil Gilbert and Antoine Parent, editors.

p. cm.(International social security series; v. 10)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7658-0802-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Public welfareFrance. 2. Public welfareUnited States. 3. FranceSocial policy1995- 4. United StatesSocial policy1993- I. Gilbert, Neil, 1940- II. Parent, Antoine. III. Series.

HV268.W44 2003

361.680944dc21

2003054124

This volume has grown out of a mission to the United States in October 2000 conducted under the auspices of the Research Division of the French Ministry of Social Affairs (MiReDREES). The purpose of this mission was to learn about the 1996 U.S. Welfare Reform and the U.S. Social Security System. The research team met with experts from federal, state, and county administrations, with policy analysts and economists from prominent think tanks and with faculty from the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley. The meetings with U.S. scholars included Neil Gilbert, Janet Yellen, Alan Auerbach, David Levine, Michael Wiseman, Karl Sholtz, Robert Haveman, Gary Burtless, Wendell Primus, Alan Weil, and Robert Lerman.

The quality of the information gathered during this mission and the receptiveness of U.S. scholars to share knowledge that was related to the French experiences with income support policy stimulated interest in further exchange and collaboration. Following up on this interest, Antoine Parent and Neil Gilbert invited a group of French and U.S. policy analysts and economists to prepare papers on several topics related to welfare and work for a workshop on the comparative assessment of welfare reforms, which was held at the University of California, Berkeley, in February 2002. After presentation of their findings and a robust exchange of ideas and perspectives on the French and U.S. systems, the workshop participants had an opportunity to reflect upon the deliberations and to prepare the final version of their analyses for publication in this volume. During the three-day gathering at the University of California, Berkeley, Michael Austin, Erica Baum, Jill Duerr Berrick, Mary Ann Mason, James Midgley, and William Runyan joined the formal and informal discussions. We should like to thank all the people who contributed their time and good counsel at the various stages of this project.

We are grateful to the Center for Child and Youth Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, the French Ministry of Social Affairs, and the International Social Security Association (ISSA), which jointly sponsored the workshop and this book. A special thanks is owed to Lorretta Morales at UC Berke-ley for her diligent work in helping to prepare the chapters for publication.

We particularly acknowledge the encouragement and advice of Mireille Elbaum, director of the Research Division of the French Ministry of Social Affairs (DREES), Pierre Strobel, Head of Research at MiRe, Gerard Cornilleau, head of Economics and Forecasting division (DREES), and Dalmer Hoskins, secretary general of the ISSA. Finally, we thank Hubert Martin, social counselor at the French Embassy in Washington, for having organized all the meetings with administrators and U.S. scholars.

Although we benefited from the wisdom and insights of many people from diverse institutional arenas, the views expressed in this book are those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the official position of any sponsoring institution.

Neil Gilbert and Antoine Parent

Gary Burtless

Madior Fall and Jean-Michel Hourriez

Neil Gilbert