Safety Net Use
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 | |
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Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient | Anne Case, Darren Lubotsky and Christina Paxson |
Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the GradientAuthor: Anne Case, Darren Lubotsky and Christina PaxsonPublisher: American Economic Review Date: |
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The Rise in Disability and the Decline in Unemployment | Autor, David and Mark Duggun |
The Rise in Disability and the Decline in UnemploymentAuthor: Autor, David and Mark DuggunPublisher: Quarterly Journal of Economics Date: |
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The Epidemiology of Social Stress | Turner, Jay R., Blair Wheaton and Donald A. Lloyd |
The Epidemiology of Social StressAuthor: Turner, Jay R., Blair Wheaton and Donald A. LloydPublisher: American Sociological Review Date: |
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Pharmaceuticals and the Developing World | Michael Kremer |
Pharmaceuticals and the Developing WorldAuthor: Michael KremerPublisher: Journal of Economic Perspectives Date: |
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Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market Outcomes | Anne Case and Christina Paxson |
Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market OutcomesAuthor: Anne Case and Christina PaxsonPublisher: Journal of Political Economy Date: |
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safety net - CPI Affiliates
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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 |
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Isabela Mares |
Professor of Political Science; Victoria Schuck Faculty Scholar |
Columbia University |
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Jan O. Jonsson |
Official Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University |
Oxford University |
Pages
Safety Net - Other Research
Title | Author | Media | |
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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America | Barbara Ehrenreich |
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in AmericaAuthor: Barbara EhrenreichPublisher: Metropolitan Books Date: Our sharpest and most original social critic goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity. Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job - any job - can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity - a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. |
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Securing Prosperity | Paul Osterman | ||
Governmental Constraints and Labor Market Mobility | Abbott, A. and D.R. Smith |
Governmental Constraints and Labor Market MobilityAuthor: Abbott, A. and D.R. SmithPublisher: Date: |
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Changes in Labor Force Participation in the United States | Juhn Chinhui and Simon Potter |
Changes in Labor Force Participation in the United StatesAuthor: Juhn Chinhui and Simon PotterPublisher: Journal of Economic Perspectives Date: |
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The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality | Jerry A. Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson |
The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender InequalityAuthor: Jerry A. Jacobs and Kathleen GersonPublisher: Harvard University Press Date: |
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Safety Net - Multimedia
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