Somewhat similar to Steuerle’s twice-poverty trap conclusion, Acs et al. (1998) found
that low-income single mothers were better off working than relying solely on welfare,
but gained little from raising their wage from $5.15 to $9.00 per hour. Work by Wolfe
(2002) documented the tension between providing a safety net for people unable to
work and incentives to increase work. In both studies, analysts noted a tradeoff between