Data and Code for: Changes in Family Structure and Welfare Participation Since the 1960S: The Role of Legal Services

This paper evaluates the effects of the War on Poverty’s Legal Services Program (LSP) on family
structure and welfare participation. LSPs provided subsidized legal assistance to poor
communities, focusing on divorce and welfare access. We use a difference-in-differences research
design based on the rollout of the program to 269 counties from 1965 to 1975. We find temporary
increases in the rate of new divorces and persistent increases in the level of welfare participation,
consistent with LSP activities. We also find that increases in nonmarital birth rates that stem not
from rising birth rates overall, but from falling marriage rates. Expanded access to legal institutions
thus contributed, directly and indirectly, to changes in family structure in the 1960s.