Welfare, Work, and Poverty provides the first systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the impacts and effectiveness of China’s primary social assistance program—Minimum Livelihood Guarantee, or Dibao. Founded in 1993, Dibao is intended to both provide a safety net for the poor and maintain social and political stability. This book offers important new empirical evidence on the world’s largest welfare program in terms of population covered and draws timely policy lessons for both China and beyond. Qin Gao, a professor in the School of Social Work and director of the China Center for Social Policy, addresses questions such as Dibao’s effectiveness in alleviating poverty and moving recipients from entitlement programs to employment, and whether recipients become more optimistic about the future and enjoy greater life satisfaction or are instead distressed by the stigma associated with receiving assistance.