Maria Cancian
Ph.D.

Professor; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1993. Interests: economics of the family; welfare and social policy; poverty and the distribution of income. Current research: welfare reform, child support policy, married women's market work; marriage patterns and the distribution of income.

Contact Information

University of Wisconsin, Madison - Social Work
214 School of Social Work
1350 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: 263-6633
Fax: 263-3836
Email: mcancian@wisc.edu

Education

Swathmore College, BA, 1985
University of Michigan, MA, Economics, 1990
University of Michigan, Ph.D., Economics, 1993

Research Interests

Dr. Cancian is a Professor in the School of Social Work and the La Follette School of Public Affairs, and Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty. An economist, much of Dr. Cancian's current research focuses on the impact of public policies on the economic well-being of vulnerable families. With Daniel Meyer, she is a P.I. for the Child Support Demonstration Evaluation, an experimental evaluation of Wisconsin's unique approach to the interaction of child support and welfare. In other collaborative work with Dr. Meyer she is investigating the income and well being of women affected by recent welfare reform, and patterns of multiple partner fertility. Other areas of interest include the role of women?s marital and employment patterns for the distribution of income and the incidence of poverty.

Current Research Projects

Project Title: Wisconsin Works Child Support Evaluation: Long-term Follow-Up

Role on Project: Principal Investigator, with Dan Meyer

Funding Agency: Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Wisconsin is unique among the states in allowing welfare participants to keep the child support paid on their behalf. This large-scale evaluation examines whether this policy affects child support payments, welfare use, and the well-being of children, nonresident fathers, and resident mothers.

For more information, see the executive summaries of the final report of phase I at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/csde/phase1-vol1-es.htm and http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/csde/phase1-vol2-es.htm.

Selected Publications

2005 Cancian, Maria, Daniel R. Meyer and Chi-Fang Wu. Welfare Patterns after the Welfare Revolution. Social Work Research. 29(4):193-256. (Condensed version forthcoming in the La Follette Policy Report)

2005 Meyer, Daniel R., Maria Cancian and Steven Cook. Multiple Partner Fertility: Incidence and Implications for Child Support Policy. Social Service Review. 79 (4): 577-601. (Received 2006 Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize).

2004 Cancian, Maria and Daniel R. Meyer. Alternative Measures of Economic Success among TANF Participants: Avoiding Poverty, Hardship and Dependence on Public Assistance. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 23(3):531-548.

2004 Cancian, Maria and Daniel R. Meyer. Fathers of Children Receiving Welfare in Wisconsin: Can They Do More? Social Service Review. 78(2):179-206 .

2004 Sweeney, Megan and Maria Cancian. The Changing Importance of Economic Prospects for Assortative Mating Journal of Marriage and the Family.

2002 Cancian, Maria, Robert Haveman, Daniel R. Meyer and Barbara Wolfe. Before and After TANF: The Economic Well-Being of Women Leaving Welfare Social Service Review. 76(4): 603-641

2001 Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian. Ten Years Later: Economic Well-Being among those Who Left Welfare. Forthcoming in Journal of Applied Social Sciences.

2001 Deborah Reed and Maria Cancian. Sources of Inequality: Measuring the Contributions of Income Sources to Rising Family Income Inequality. Review of Income and Wealth 47(3).

2000 Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer. Work after Welfare: Work Effort, Occupational and Economic Well-Being. Social Work Research, 24:69-86.

1999 Maria Cancian and Deborah Reed. The Impact of Wives? Earnings on Income Inequality: Issues and Estimates. Demography 36(3).

1998 Maria Cancian and Robert F. Schoeni. 1998. Wives' Earnings and the Level and Distribution of Married Couples' Earnings In Developed Countries. Journal of Income Distribution. 8(1):45-61.

1998 Maria Cancian. Race-based Versus Class-based Affirmative Action in College Admissions. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 17(1):94-105.

1998 Maria Cancian and Deborah Reed. Assessing the Effects of Wives' Earnings on Family Income Inequality. Review of Economics and Statistics. 80(1):73-79.

1998 Maria Cancian and Daniel R. Meyer. Who Gets Custody? Demography. 35:147-57

1998 Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian. Economic Well-Being Following an Exit from AFDC. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 60:479-92.