Using an Event History Analysis to Evaluate Social Welfare Programs

Abstract

This article presents an overview of how an event history analysis can be used to evaluate social welfare programs' impacts on events and the timing of events. An overview of event history analysis is presented, including a discussion of events and spells, hazards, censoring, duration intervals, longitudinal databases, design issues, and life table and multivariate analysis techniques. The article concludes with an example of how an event history analysis was used to evaluate the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.