RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Elizabeth Kneebone, October 21, 2009, National Community Tax Coalition
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube, October 09, 2009, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Mark Muro, Robert Puentes and Alan Berube, February 13, 2009, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Rebecca M. Blank and Mark H. Greenberg, February 10, 2009, Real Clear Politics
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Elizabeth Kneebone, January 26, 2009, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube, December 28, 2008, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Rebecca M. Blank, December 17, 2008, The Charlotte Observer
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube and Elizabeth Kneebone, October 24, 2008, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Rebecca M. Blank, September 25, 2008, Joint Economic Committee
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ron Haskins, September 15, 2008, First Focus
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. Read More
VIDEO
Alan Berube, August 12, 2008
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.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ron Haskins, August 08, 2008, Pathways Magazine
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube, August 08, 2008, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube, David Park and Elizabeth Kneebone, June 05, 2008, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Stephen D. Holt, June 05, 2008, The Brookings Institution
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. Read More