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• Economic Recovery and the Earned Income Tax Credit

  Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

  At the National Community Tax Coalition’s inaugural Day of Action on Capitol Hill, Elizabeth Kneebone discussed how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 increased support for low-income working families.

• Smarter Dumb Tax Policy

  Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

  
  As the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers nears expiration, congressional leaders are considering an extension and an expansion of the program. However, Alan Berube argues that this is not only poor tax policy but also, because of regional variations in housing prices, potentially inflationary.

• Delivering Metropolitan Stimulus

  Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

  A historic fiscal experiment in this country will evolve in the weeks, months and years ahead as a $790 billion stimulus package is spent to revive America’s economy. Metropolitan Policy Program experts suggest how this money might be strategically deployed to invigorate our nation’s metropolitan areas, the sources of national prosperity.

• Poverty and Economic Stimulus

  Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

  
  Rebecca M. Blank And Mark H. Greenberg agree that while in the short run, economic need is rising rapidly and we need to address the short-run problems as well as think about the long-term reforms, and that the parts of the recovery plan that are directed to low-income and unemployed families are good economics and good social policy. They say that it would only be the beginning of any serious effort to deal with poverty in America.

• Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to Benefit Families and Places

  Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

  
  The economic recovery bill includes tax relief for lower-income working families, including temporary, targeted expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). A new Metropolitan Policy Program analysis shows how proposed expansions to the EITC would benefit taxpayers in individual states, metropolitan areas and selected cities around the nation.

• How to Reverse the Trend of Concentrated Poverty

  Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  Alan Berube urges policy-makers to evaluate short-term opportunities and set long-term strategies in order to help Cleveland’s next generation of residents overcome the challenges of concentrated poverty.

• Fighting Poverty in the Land of Opportunity

  Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  
  With unemployment rising, more families feel squeezed this holiday season than ever. Rebecca Blank urges the new president to consider a plan to support low-wage workers, ensure an effective safety net and create opportunities in high-poverty neighborhoods that might guarantee American families more on their tables in the seasons ahead.

• The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America

  Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  The Federal Reserve System and its 12 member banks partnered with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program to produce a new, in-depth look at concentrated poverty in America. The two-year study profiles 16 high-poverty communities across the United States, investigating the historical and contemporary factors associated with their high levels of economic distress.

• How Can We Reduce the Rising Number of American Families Living in Poverty?

  Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  In this testimony, Rebecca Blank argues for the need to modernize our poverty statistics so that we may have a better understanding of who is poor and how these numbers are changing over time. She discusses anti-poverty strategies for the next decade.

• Making Work Pay – Again

  Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  Ron Haskins offers ways policymakers could create an entitlement to housing assistance that would more fairly distribute housing benefits and convert housing into a more effective element in the nation’s work support system. The goal of reform would be to get the most out of the resources now devoted to housing by providing at least some benefit to all eligible families that want a housing subsidy.

• Low-Income Families and Communities

  Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:14:38 GMT

  In a new report, Alan Berube and Elizabeth Kneebone explain that following a dramatic decline in concentrated poverty in the 1990s, the number of low-income workers and families living in high-working-poverty neighborhoods rose by a striking 41% in the first half of this decade. Alan Berube says that help for high working-poverty communities will come from stronger national and regional economic growth—plus targeted efforts to protect neighborhoods of choice and connection.

• Reversal of Fortune: A New Look at Concentrated Poverty in the 2000s

  Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  After dramatic declines in concentrated poverty in the 1990s, the number of low-income workers and families living in high-working-poverty neighborhoods rose by a striking 41% in the first half of this decade, according to a new report from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The report's authors draw on data from the IRS to measure the change in rates of “concentrated working poverty” nationally and in many of the largest metropolitan areas across the country.

• Economic Stimulus Act: Hard to Kill Two Birds with One Stone

  Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  
  The bipartisan economic stimulus package was a straightforward application of Keynesian fiscal policy: Spend your way out of recession. However, some might wonder if it’s possible to design a stimulus package that could also reduce inequality. In this paper, Ron Haskins explains why targeted stimulus may reduce poverty in the short run but cannot substitute for investments that will reduce inequality in the long run.

• Periodic Payment of the Earned Income Tax Credit

  Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  Many low-income working families would benefit from a streamlined ability to access the proceeds of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) throughout the year as they pay for ongoing expenses like housing, child care, and transportation. The federal government should consider adopting a model for direct periodic payment of the EITC, as most other countries with in-work tax credits provide.

• Metro Raise: Boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit to Help Metropolitan Workers and Families

  Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  
  Slowed economic growth and rising prices for necessities like food, transportation, and child care threaten to exacerbate the challenges already facing America's low-income workers and their families. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) could do more to help close the growing gap between stagnant wages and rising prices. "Metro Raise" demonstrates how an expanded and modernized EITC would benefit families and communities in the nation's major metropolitan areas.

• Bridging the Gap: Refundable Tax Credits in Metropolitan and Rural America

  Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  
  In this report, Elizbeth Kneebone examines the changing distribution of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients across large cites and suburbs, smaller metro areas, and rural communities throughout the country. While taxpayers in large cities and rural areas were the most likely to claim the EITC in 2005, more than one-third of EITC filers lived in the suburbs of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.

• The Costs of Benefit Delivery in the Food Stamp Program

  Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

  This study by Brookings expert Julia Isaacs compares the Food Stamp Program with eight other public assistance programs across four measures of program effectiveness—administrative costs, error payments, program access, and benefit targeting.

• Employment-Based Tax Credits for Low-Skilled Workers

  Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

  To address a few problems with low-income families, John Karl Scholz proposes a two-part policy designed to increase the return to work. He argues that increasing the return to work for childless low-skilled workers will lower unemployment rates and will improve other social benefits.

• Fighting Poverty through Incentives and Work Mandates for Young Men

  Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

  
  Wage subsidies and work requirements hold the promise of alleviating many social problems, especially poverty. Brookings’s Ron Haskins writes about counteracting the negative behaviors of adolescent boys and young men in a new brief.

• The Importance of the EITC to Urban Economies

  Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

  Though most do not recognize it as an "urban" program, the Earned Income Tax Credit provides significant benefits to families in cities and suburbs, and stimulates local economic activity. In this presentation to Congressional staff organized by Living Cities, Alan Berube examines what Members can do to maximize the benefits of the EITC for lower-income families and communities in their districts.

• Ending Poverty in America: Using Carrots and Sticks

  Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

  Article by Ron Haskins and Isabel V. Sawhill (May 2007)

• A Local Ladder for Low-Income Workers: Recent Trends in the Earned Income Tax Credit

  Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

  In this report, Elizabeth Kneebone examines how receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) increased between 2000 and 2004 in response to economic challenges. Increases were largest in the suburbs of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, which today contain 2.4 million more EITC recipients than central cities.

• The Earned Income Tax Credit

  Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

  Testimony by Ron Haskins (2/22/07)

• Using EITC to Stimulate Local Economies

  Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  Local and regional leaders across the U.S. have come to view the Earned Income Tax Credit as a critical investment in their economies. This paper explores the benefits to families and communities that can result from actions to realize the full potential of the credit.

• Using IRS Data in Tax Outreach Campaigns

  Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  In this presentation at the National Community Tax Coalition annual conference, Alan Berube discusses the Brookings interactive tax data website, and how local coalitions can use the data to measure, target, and expand the services they provide to lower-income taxpayers.

• Poor Should Get More for Their Money

  Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  Increasing in the minimum wage has to be paired with a national campaign to lower the higher prices being paid by the poor today.

• New Goals and Outcomes for Temporary Assistance: State Choices in the Decade after Enactment

  Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  This analysis reviews spending decisions nationwide and in three states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, under the Temporary Assistance program since its enactment in 1996.

• San Francisco Delivers a Local Earned Income Tax Credit

  Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  One novel approach from the Bay Area may hold lessons for the rest of urban America.

• The Earned Income Tax Credit at Age 30: An Overview

  Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  In this presentation to the European Union Labour Counsellors, Alan Berube discusses how the EITC works, whom it benefits, what effects it has on work and poverty, and what issues surround the credit as it enters its 31st year.

• The Potential Value of IRS Data for State/Local Analysis

  Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  In this presentation to KIDS COUNT grantees, Alan Berube discusses the potential value of using IRS data to describe changing state and local economic conditions and the well-being of children and families.

• The Earned Income Tax Credit at Age 30: What We Know

  Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  This research brief by Steve Holt reviews the structure and history of the EITC, summarizing key research into the people and places it affects as well as its impact on important socioeconomic measures.

• The New Safety Net: How the Tax Code Helped Low-Income Working Families During the Early 2000s

  Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

  In this report, Alan Berube examines how receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expanded nationwide from 2000 to 2003 in response to a weakened economy.

• Using the EITC to Make Housing More Affordable

  Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

  In this presentation delivered at the National Council of La Raza 2005 Annual Conference, Alan Berube discusses the role that income supplements like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) play in making housing more affordable for lower-income Latino families. He also highlights potential strategies for enhancing its capacity to reduce the housing cost burdens that these families face in many metropolitan areas.

• New Tax Credit Research Offers Information for City Leaders

  Mon, 06 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

  Continued support for low-income taxpayer outreach and volunteer tax preparation can spread important messages about the alternatives to high-price, low-value commercial tax products.

• EITC Outreach Campaigns

  Mon, 21 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT

  Alan Berube's presentation to the EITC Funders Network outlines why outreach campaigns organized around the Earned Income Tax Credit have taken root in a growing number of communities across the U.S.

• Blue (and Red) over Tax Cuts

  Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:00:00 GMT

  Notions of a politically segregated nation obscure the increasing intermixture of people in metropolitan America.

• The ""State"" of Low-Wage Workers: How the EITC Benefits Urban and Rural Communities in the 50 States

  Sun, 01 Feb 2004 00:00:00 GMT

  Low-income working families live in large cities and rural areas in nearly equal numbers, IRS data show.

• Tax Credits for Working Families: The New American Social Policy

  Fri, 01 Aug 2003 00:00:00 GMT

  An analysis of existing tax credit programs argues that a credit to enhance income security for both low-income and middle-income families could broaden the political constituency for investments in working families.

• The State Role in Rewarding Work through the EITC

  Sun, 23 Feb 2003 00:00:00 GMT

  This address by Bruce Katz to the National Governors Association Committee on Human Resources argues that that governors can leverage the benefits of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit for urban and rural areas alike.

• The Price of Paying Taxes: How Tax Preparation and Refund Loan Fees Erode the Benefits of the EITC

  Wed, 01 May 2002 00:00:00 GMT

  This new report details, for the first time, how the use of tax preparation services and "fast cash" refund loans is concentrated among working poor families and neighborhoods

• Rewarding Work: The Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit in Chicago

  Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 GMT

  A report examining the impacts of the earned income tax credit on metropolitan areas

• Rewarding Work: The Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit

  Fri, 01 Jun 2001 00:00:00 GMT

  This survey series uses IRS data to analyze the spatial distribution of working poor families in 29 regions across the US. It finds that the EITC is a significant federal antipoverty investment in cities and their regions, and that in most regions a