Policy

Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass

In a fervent appeal for clearer thinking on social issues, Christopher Jencks re-examines the way American think about race, poverty, crime, heredity, welfare, and the underclass. Arguing that neither liberal nor conservative ideas about these issues withstand close scrutiny, he calls for less emphasis on political principles and more attention to specific programs. His intention throughout is to force us (readers and policymakers) to look at the way various remedial plans actually succeed or fail and to think about social policy more concretely.

The Great Recession and the Social Safety Net

The social safety net responded in significant and favorable ways during the Great Recession. Aggregate per capita expenditures grew significantly, with particularly strong growth in the SNAP, EITC, UI, and Medicaid programs. Distributionally, the increase in transfers was widely shared across demographic groups, including families with and without children, single-parent and two-parent families. Transfers grew as well among families with more employed members and with fewer employed members.

The Social Safety Net and the Great Recession

As the economic downturn wears on, the debate about U.S. spending on the safety net has become increasingly rancorous. Indeed, former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich famously referred to Barack Obama as "the food stamp president" in the early-2012 campaign trail. The purpose of this recession brief is to step back from the rancor and describe in straightforward fashion how spending on the safety net has responded to the Great Recession.

The Cost of Free Assistance: Studying the Non-Use of Food Assistance in San Francisco

Non-governmental free food assistance is available to many low-income Americans through food pantries, yet many do not avail themselves of this assistance. As the monetary value of such assistance can be over $2,000 per year, non-use poses a puzzle from an economic standpoint. This study uses original data collected through in-depth interviews with 63 low-income San Franciscans who did not use free food assistance from food pantires. The data paint a nuanced picture of the reasons low-income people do not obtain assistance from local food pantries.

Who Claimed Social Security Early Due to the Great Recession?

Between 2007 and 2009, the percent of 62 year olds claiming Social Security benefits reversed a decade-long decline and increased sharply before reverting back to trend. This phenomenon raises two questions: 1) who was induced to claim early?; and 2) how much monthly retirement income have they lost as a result? To address these questions, this brief, which reflects findings from a recent paper, uses individual-level data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

How Does the Composition of Disability Insurance Applicants Change Across Business Cycles?

Much as in previous recessions, the number of applications to public disability insurance programs increased sharply during the Great Recession. We find that the composition of applicants also changes across business cycles. For example, applicants during economic downturns, and especially during the Great Recession, are younger, better educated, higher income, and more likely to have recent work experience.

How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford? The Impact of the Recession on Recent College Graduates

Past research from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project has shown the power of a college education to both promote upward mobility and prevent downward mobility. The chances of moving from the bottom of the family income ladder all the way to the top are three times greater for someone with a college degree than for someone without one. Moreover, when compared with their less-credentialed counterparts, college graduates have been able to count on much higher earnings and lower unemployment rates.

Great Recession-Induced Early Claimers: Who Are They? How Much Do They Lose?

During the Great Recession, more older workers have claimed Social Security benefits early. This paper addresses two important policy questions: Who are these early claimers? How much retirement income have they lost as a result of claiming early? Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) we estimate a discrete-time hazard model that makes claiming Social Security benefits a function of age, personal characteristics, and the national unemployment rate.

Tax Structure and Revenue Instability: The Great Recession and the States

Though the great recession has had the most severe overall effect on state tax revenues of any downturn since the Great Depression, impacts varied widely across states. Tax revenues were affected through two different channels. The first is due to the collapse in realized capital gains income following the sharp decline in the stock market. State tax bases are affected in proportion to pre-recession reliance on capital gains income, in turn closely associated with the degree of income concentration.

Measuring Intergenerational Economic Mobility with Tax-Return Data: Towards an IRS Platform

The United States purports to have an unusually strong commitment to equal opportunity, yet surprisingly it hasn't collected the mobility data needed to reliably monitor whether that commitment is being upheld. Although mobility and opportunity cannot of course be equated, it's widely understood that mobility data provide fundamental evidence on opportunity, which is why virtually all late industrial countries, save the U.S., have well-developed systems for monitoring mobility. It's not as if the U.S. is a more general laggard in developing social indicators.

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