Chi-Fang Wu
Assistant Professor
Office location:303 SSW
Phone number:217-244-5222
Email: cfangwu@uiuc.edu
Educational Background
Dr. Wu received her master’s degree in social work from National Taiwan University in 1993 and her PhD in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. She worked as a policy planner and evaluator at Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan or Cabinet in Taiwan after she received her master’s degree. She joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2005 after working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Wu’s research on welfare reform has drawn the attention of policy analysts in Wisconsin, where she conducted her dissertation research, and nationally. Her dissertation research is a groundbreaking study that has examined the dynamic patterns of sanctioning, the patterns of benefits following a sanction and characteristics of those sanctioned participants, and effects of sanctions on employment, level of earnings, and welfare exits. She also investigated whether the effects of sanctions vary according to the severity, timing, and duration of sanctions. Finally, her dissertation research addressed sample selection bias issues using an instrumental variable estimate strategy to identify effects of welfare sanctions. Her study has potentially important implications for social work and public welfare policy.
Research and Practice Interests
Poverty, social welfare policy, impact of welfare reform on low-income families, welfare sanctions, welfare participation dynamics, access to benefits and support services for low-income families, evaluation research, and program evaluation.
Current Research
Access to Public Benefits and Private Sources of Assistance for Low-Income Families
Dr. Wu is examining patterns of welfare application and use of public and private sources of assistance, and the factors associated with welfare access and use of public and private assistance. She is documenting the reasons low-income individuals do not inquire about or apply for assistance programs and are denied in the application process. Finally, she is investigating the impact of access to benefits and support services on low-income families’ well-being and examining how non-enrolling eligible low-income families fare relative to welfare participants.
Improving Access to Benefits and Services for Low-Income Families Through Policy Knowledge Training Programs
This project is focused on providing training and curriculum for assisting low-income individuals to improve their knowledge and skills to access a variety of public and private benefits. The specific goals of the policy knowledge training programs are to (1) increase their awareness of available public assistance programs and other community resources, (2) improve their knowledge of and social skills to access public assistance and community programs, (3) increase their understanding of their legal rights when denied government benefits, and (4) ultimately increase their financial well-being and civic engagement.
Long-Term Employment and Earnings of Welfare Participants
Dr. Wu is examining longitudinal patterns of employment and earnings of welfare recipients over a six-year period. She is developing an approach to categorizing participants’ employment and earnings trajectories, which will allow a better understanding of the diversity of pathways. She is also considering differential patterns of medium-term and long-term employment and earnings success so she can then compare the factors associated with medium-term and long-term success.
Recent Publications
Wu, Chi-Fang, Maria Cancian, Daniel R. Meyer, and Geoffrey L. Wallace. (2006). How do welfare sanctions work? Social Work Research, 30(1), 33-50.
Cancian, Maria, Daniel R. Meyer, and Chi-Fang Wu. (2005). After the revolution: welfare patterns since TANF implementation. Social Work Research, 29(4):199-214.
Wu, Chi-Fang, Maria Cancian, and Daniel R. Meyer. (2004). Sanction policies and outcomes in Wisconsin. Focus, 23 (1), 38-40. University of Wisconsin-Madison: Institute for Research on Poverty.
Cancian, Maria, Daniel R. Meyer with Chi-Fang Wu. (2001). Program participation of mothers on W-2. Chapter four of Volume II: Well-Being of W-2 Families, in Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian, Child Support Demonstration Evaluation (three volumes). Report of the Child Support Demonstration Evaluation submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.