WORKFARE IN NEW JERSEY: A FIVE YEAR ASSESSMENT.

This paper reviews the debate on the relative virtues of "workfare" and examines how successful earlier workfare programs have been. The central focus of this paper is on the New Jersey General Assistance Employability Program, a workfare program imposed on New Jersey's General Assistance recipients in mid-1978. A general description of the mechanics of the New Jersey workfare program and the services offered by this program is provided. An interrupted time series regression model is presented to measure the impact of workfare on the enrollment in the General Assistance programs Results from this model allow an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of New Jersey workfare. It is found that the reduction in transfer payments generated by the program exceed its operating costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]