October 2003

The Long-Term Effects of the Minnesota Family Investment Program on Marriage and Divorce Among Two-Parent Families

In 1994, Minnesota began to test a major welfare reform initiative that emphasized financial incentives for work, a participation requirement for long-term recipients, and the simplification of rules and procedures for receiving public assistance. This program, called the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), was initially implemented in seven counties. MDRC conducted an in-depth evaluation of MFIPs effectiveness and impact on various populations served, using a random assignment design that placed over 14,000 families in either the MFIP or the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) system. The evaluation has produced findings on participants employment, earnings, welfare receipt, income, and other measures of children's and parents outcomes over a three-year follow-up period for single- and two-parent families. One of the striking findings of this evaluation was that a survey sample of two-parent recipient families assigned to MFIP was 19.1 percentage points, or 40 percent, more likely to be married at the three-year follow-up point than two-parent recipient families assigned to AFDC.