My underlying sample consists of 29,556 adult welfare recipients
who entered Colorado’ s welfare system, Colorado
Works, between the third quarter of 2004 and second quarter
of 2007. I use program data which contains the universe
of individuals who received any assistance from Colorado’ s
TANF program (Colorado Works) beginning September 2004.
The small number of adult male recipients and women who
were younger than 19 or older than 60 at entry are excluded.
I observe monthly welfare receipt between entry and the
first quarter of 2010 as well as a variety of characteristics including
age, race, marital status, number of children, lifetime
months of assistance, whether the individual is listed as having
a disability, and whether she owns a vehicle. Moreover,
I observe changes in time-varying individual characteristics
(e.g., marriages, births, becoming disabled) that are potentially
correlated with both the decision to enroll in college
and labor market outcomes.1