Poverty
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Raising the Poverty Line in Divided Government
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Once again, Congress appears deadlocked. Following the tight 2022 midterm elections, Democrats managed to maintain a slim majority in the U.S. Senate, but narrowly lost the House. More recently, the prolonged race for Speaker of the House revealed the instability of the Republican House majority. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is…
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Do SNAP benefits fulfill their mission?
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Social safety net programs were designed to help poorer members of society meet their basic needs. The model in the United States was expanded by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty, which focused on prevention. The president’s administration hoped to expand the federal government’s role in education and healthcare…
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One Intervention Is Not Enough: How Continued Human Capital Investments Reduce Inequality
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How can we use education investments to reduce economic inequality and break intergenerational cycles of poverty? Research conducted by Rucker C. Johnson and Kirabo Jackson published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy suggests that continuous education investments throughout childhood can help narrow gaps in well-being by improving the adult…
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The Long-Term Impact of Anti-Poverty Policies
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Since the enactment of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the federal government of the United States has taken a hands-on approach to alleviating poverty. From the minimum wage to food stamps, existing federal policies provide low-income families numerous incentives with varying results. In a groundbreaking new study, David Neumark,…
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Understanding the Impact of Medicaid on Poverty
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Medicaid continues to constitute a key component of the safety net for low-income households, covering more than 76 million Americans in 2016. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 37 states expanded Medicaid to cover adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. Previously, adults were required to…
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Does Economic Growth Help or Hinder Poverty Alleviation? A Case Study From Mexico
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The uneven distribution of globalization-driven economic growth has led researchers to question whether growth actually decreases poverty and inequality. They have tried to answer questions such as: Does growth affect poverty at all? Is growth sufficient to reduce poverty? What conditions must exist for the growth of a country to be pro-poor?…
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How Public Bus Routes Can Deconcentrate Poverty and Promote Equity
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Initiatives that aim to address geographically concentrated poverty often focus on providing affordable housing. While such housing projects may increase quality of life for residents, they are unlikely to reduce the concentration of poverty in particular areas. New research suggests that a more effective approach to changing the geography of…
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Unconditional Cash Transfers: Lessons from Ecuador
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Poor people, especially in developing countries, have inadequate financial resources and face liquidity issues which constrain expenditures on their children’s health and education. Cash transfers ease these constraints by providing households with financial support. To ensure that cash transfers are spent on essential needs, transfers can be attached to specific…
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Education Migration: Why Teachers Are Leaving the Profession
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Teacher shortages are a harsh reality in states across the nation. From California to South Carolina, recruiting and retaining teachers is an imminent concern for school districts, parents, and students. These problems are often more pronounced in high poverty, racially segregated (HPRS) schools. In 2000, annual turnover rates for all…
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The Lefts, Mexico, and Latin America: A Conversation with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
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Biography: Mr. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is the son of late Mexican President and Mexican Revolutionary General, Lázaro Cárdenas del Río. He has been a Mexican Senator, Governor of the State of Michoacán, and the first democratically-elected Mayor of Mexico City. In 1988 he split with the PRI and launched the…
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More Questions than Answers: A Review of Gun Violence in Chicago
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The University of Chicago Crime Lab released a report in January 2017 that details the sudden spike in gun violence that persisted throughout 2016. The Crime Lab analyzed key data in an attempt to discover what triggered the dramatic increase in gun-related crime. Many of the findings were not surprising: Gun violence…