Academic and policy interest in the . welfare system has increased dramatically over the past 15 years, an interest that has accelerated and is currently at an all-time high. Beginning in the late 1980s with welfare reform initiatives in a few states around the country and continuing in the first half of the 1990s as more states made changes in their income support programs, welfare reform culminated at the federal level with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996. PRWORA replaced the long-standing federal entitlement program for low-income families and children (Aid to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC) with a program financed.
