On welfare or in work: perspective from single motherhood and early childhood outcomes

This paper provides new evidence on the relationship between single mothers' tax credit eligibility and early child development in Britain. Tax credit eligibility is considered as a form of family input in generating children's production function to the extent that eligibility may induce changes in income, maternal time input and childcare usage. Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), this study finds no relationship between mothers' entitlements to tax credits and children's cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes compared to the children of welfare mothers.