Public Assistance and Job Search Behavior of the Rural Poor–Evidence from the Mississippi Delta

This study explores whether prolonged welfare experience reduces the job search commitment of the unemployed. More specifically, an attempt is made to determine whether participation in a government assistance program induces the unemployed to prolong their job search activities, either through reduced search effort or by asking a higher reservation (acceptance) wage. The data were obtained from a semi-structured interview with 120 food stamp recipients participating in a pilot workfare project in Coahoma County, Mississippi. The interview questionnaire was designed to elicit the degree to which there was a relationship between welfare use and commitment to job search activities. The most important finding of the study was that in at least one economically depressed community, extended participation in a public assistance program did not appear to have a significant impact on the job search behavior of the unemployed. However, as important as this finding is, the small size of the sample and the uniqueness of the county (77 percent black) limit the applicability of the results to other rural communities across the nation. Therefore, there is a need to replicate and expand the study, utilizing a much larger sample representing a cross section of the counties in Mississippi and elsewhere in the United States.