Penalties in the Safety Net: Economic Consequences of Work Requirement Enforcement
About
Cash assistance in the United States promotes self-sufficiency through employment but imposes penalties that reduce or remove benefit income when participants violate work requirements. This seminar presents a paper quantifying the downstream consequences of not meeting work requirements using novel administrative data covering the full caseload of Michigan’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, combined with monthly enrollment records in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, as well as quarterly Unemployment Insurance earnings records. We estimate effects of violating work requirements and study a policy reform that increased the length of time families were removed from TANF after violating work requirements. Findings indicate that sanctions reduce broader safety net attachment and increase economic instability for vulnerable families over the long-term.
Presenter
Katherine Richard is an applied micro-economist, with a current focus on the U.S. social safety net. Her work employs quasi-experimental and experimental methods, in combination with large administrative data, to learn about how low income families interact with assistance programs and the labor market. Katherine’s work is funded with support from the Michigan Department of Economics, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the National Science Foundation (GRFP), and the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy.
She is currently a Postdoctoral Associate at Georgetown’s Better Government Lab. In August of 2026, Katherine will join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin’s La Follette School of Public Affairs as an Assistant Professor of Poverty and Public Policy. She completed my Ph.D. in Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan in July 2025.