| Sumario: | The writer examines the issue of whether financially rewarding illegitimacy by providing welfare payments to unwed minor mothers increases the frequency of illegitimacy. He discusses the 1995 Republican welfare reform bill, twice vetoed by President Clinton, that would have stopped paying cash to unwed minor mothers to set up their own homes and considers the more than 20 studies conducted since 1970 to determine whether cash welfare is associated with increased rates of nonmarital births. He points out that liberals deny the supposition that financially rewarding illegitimacy increases its frequency and notes that although almost three-quarters of the studies found statistically significant evidence that welfare generosity was associated with increased illegitimacy, academic social scientists dodged, explained away, and otherwise resisted this conclusion. However, he points out that new research by Mark Rosenzweig unambiguously revealed a small correlation between the level of welfare benefits and the probability of nonmarital childbearing.
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