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The American Review of Public Administration
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Welfare Program Performance

An Analysis of South Carolina’s Family Independence Program

Caroline Ratcliffe

The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.

Demetra Smith Nightingale

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

Patrick Sharkey

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Public agencies are increasingly expected to track their performance according to established criteria—to be held accountable for the expenditure of public funds and show that funds are being used to achieve intended outcomes. This analysis of South Carolina’s Family Independence welfare program examines counties’ performance on five employment-related outcomes: employment rate, employment entry rate, employment retention rate, earnings gain rate, and earned income closure rate. Counties’ performance is statistically analyzed, adjusting for variation in external factors (e.g., labor market conditions and caseload characteristics) that influence program performance but that are outside the control of county program staff. This analysis shows that external factors influence employment-related performance, suggesting that states may want to vary counties’ goals based on external factors, rather than expecting all counties to meet the same performance level. This analysis provides an example of how agencies can apply statistical analysis to measure, track, and analyze program performance.

Key Words: welfare • performance • employment • earnings

The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 37, No. 1, 65-90 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0275074006288307
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