Safety Net Use
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Karen Jusko -
Mark Duggan -
Hilary Hoynes
Leaders: Mark Duggan, Hilary Hoynes, Karen Jusko
The Safety Net RG is devoted to monitoring changes in government transfers and anti-poverty programs and assessing whether they are meeting the needs of the poor. The U.S. safety net is undergoing such changes as (a) an ongoing decline in TANF cash benefits, (b) rapid increases in spending on EITC, Medicaid, Disability Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, and SNAP, and (c) a dramatic shift toward spending that favors the “working poor” over the more destitute. The CPI affiliates working within this research group are monitoring these changes, examining their implications for poverty, assessing the effectiveness of key government and nongovernment programs in reducing poverty, and modeling the costs and benefits of possible changes in policy and programs. We’ve provided a sampling here of some of this ongoing research.
Poverty Relief Project: With Kate Weisshaar, Karen Jusko uses the poverty relief ratio to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs over time, across states, and across countries. Which state is the least effective in fighting poverty? Has the U.S. become more or less effective over time? These and other questions are answered in our latest State of the Union reports.
Long-run effects of SNAP: Have we underestimated the returns to SNAP by ignoring the long-run effects on children exposed to it in their early childhood? It’s now possible to find out.
California Welfare Laboratory: The poverty rate in California, when measured with the Supplemental Poverty Measure, is the highest in the country. What can be done to bring that rate down? The mission of the California Welfare Laboratory is to make research on California’s welfare programs accessible to all and thus facilitate an informed discussion of what is working and what needs to be improved.
Differential EITC effects: It is often argued that early interventions have especially high payoffs. Are the returns to the EITC indeed larger when it goes to parents with young children?
Disability and poverty: Does the federal government’s disability program reduce labor supply? Although it’s long been difficult to identify a causal effect, Mark Duggan has now found a way.
The effects of TANF: The TANF program is very decentralized and thus takes on dramatically different forms. How can we exploit that variability to find out what’s working?
Featured Examples
Safety Net - CPI Research
| Title | Author | Media | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has the Shift to Managed Care Reduced Medicaid Spending? Evidence from State and Local-Level Mandates | Mark Duggan, Tamara Hayford |
Has the Shift to Managed Care Reduced Medicaid Spending? Evidence from State and Local-Level MandatesAuthor: Mark Duggan, Tamara HayfordPublisher: Date: 01/2013 From 1991 to 2009, the fraction of Medicaid recipients enrolled in HMOs and other forms of Medicaid managed care (MMC) increased from 11 percent to 71 percent. This increase was largely driven by state and local mandates that required most Medicaid recipients to enroll in an MMC plan. Theoretically, it is ambiguous whether the shift from fee-for-service into managed care would lead to an increase or a reduction in Medicaid spending. This paper investigates this effect using a data set on state and local level MMC mandates and detailed data from CMS on state Medicaid expenditures. The findings suggest that shifting Medicaid recipients from fee-for-service into MMC did not reduce Medicaid spending in the typical state. If anything, our results suggest that the shift to MMC increased Medicaid spending and that this effect was especially present for risk-based HMOs. However, the effects of the shift to MMC on Medicaid spending varied significantly across states as a function of the generosity of the state’s baseline Medicaid provider reimbursement rates. |
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| Poverty Requires Disaster Relief | Michele Dauber | ||
| Health, Mental Health, and the Great Recession | Sarah Burgard |
Health, Mental Health, and the Great RecessionAuthor: Sarah BurgardPublisher: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality Date: 10/2012 Are we experiencing a "health recession"? While many think the impacts of the Great Recession are mostly confined to the labor and housing markets, the recession may also have taken a toll on health and wellbeing. In assessing such health impacts, it's important to distinguish between direct and indirect effects, the former pertaining to the health of those who are directly impacted by recession-induced negative events, such as unemployment, and the latter pertaining to the more diffuse behavioral changes that a recession may bring about among the general population. For example, the recession might reduce the amount of discretionary driving (to save on fuel costs), with the indirect result being fewer accidents. |
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| The Labor Force and the Great Recession | Michael Hout, Erin Cumberworth |
The Labor Force and the Great RecessionAuthor: Michael Hout, Erin CumberworthPublisher: Date: 10/2012 The Great Recession and the slow recovery since have been the longest economic slump in seventy years. It affected vulnerable populations more than others. In this brief, our aim is to put this disaster into historical context, looking first at the overall state of the labor market and then at how the economic harm has been distributed across the population by gender, level of education, and race and ethnicity. |
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| Older Workers, Retirement, and the Great Recession | Richard W. Johnson |
Older Workers, Retirement, and the Great RecessionAuthor: Richard W. JohnsonPublisher: Date: 10/2012 The workforce in the United States is becoming ever older. Because the number of older workers is growing, and because work is increasingly important to older adults, it is worth examining how older workers are faring in the Great Recession. This brief reports on employment, unemployment, and labor force participation among older workers since 2007, just before the labor market collapsed. It focuses on workers age 62 or older, nearly all of whom qualify for Social Security retirement benefits, an important safety net if laid off. However, it also examines outcomes for workers as young as age 50, whom employers appear somewhat reluctant to hire. |
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safety net - CPI Affiliates
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Michele Landis Dauber |
Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy) |
Stanford University |
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Thomas E. MaCurdy |
Professor of Economics; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution |
Stanford University |
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Cybelle Fox |
Professor of Sociology |
University of California, Berkeley |
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Edward B. Montgomery |
Dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy; Research Associate, National Bureau for Economic Research; Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration |
Georgetown University |
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Emily Hannum |
Professor of Sociology and Education; Associate Director, Population Studies Center |
Univerisity of Pennsylvania |
Pages
Safety Net - Other Research
| Title | Author | Media | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positional Externalities Cause Large and Preventable Welfare Losses | Frank, Robert H. |
Positional Externalities Cause Large and Preventable Welfare LossesAuthor: Frank, Robert H.Publisher: American Economic Review Date: 01/2005 |
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| Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers | Arne. L. Kalleberg |
Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and WorkersAuthor: Arne. L. KallebergPublisher: Work and Occupations Date: 05/2003 |
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| From Mill Town to Board Room: The Rise of Women’s Paid Labor | Dora L. Costa |
From Mill Town to Board Room: The Rise of Women’s Paid LaborAuthor: Dora L. CostaPublisher: Journal of Economic Perspectives Date: 03/2000 |
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| The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity | Michael J. Piore and Charles F. Sabel |
The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for ProsperityAuthor: Michael J. Piore and Charles F. SabelPublisher: Basic Books, Inc. Date: |
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| Employment Relationships in the New Economy | David Neumark and Debbie Reed |
Employment Relationships in the New EconomyAuthor: David Neumark and Debbie ReedPublisher: Labour Economics Date: |
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Safety Net - Multimedia
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