Welfare Policy, Language Group, and the Duration of Lone Motherhood Spells

We use a large sample of linked income tax records to estimate a competing risk model of the likelihood of an exit from lone motherhood to either a marital or common-law union. We find that recent Canadian welfare policy reforms have had only a small impact at most on the duration of lone motherhood spells. Lone mothers in Francophone Quebec and in the rest of Canada exit to different states, but spend similar lengths of time as single parents. Finally, the economic consequences of an exit from lone motherhood are similar for exits to marital and to common-law unions.