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
PAST EVENT
Monday, April 28, 2008
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Washington, DC
In a new book, Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton University Press and Russell Sage, 2008), political scientist Larry Bartels argues that economic inequality in America is partly a product of our democracy, dominated by partisan ideologies and the interests of the wealthy.
On April 28, Brookings will host a panel discussion on the political causes and consequences of America's growing income gap with Bartels, Brookings Senior Fellow Thomas Mann and Special Guest Elisabeth Jacobs. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
David F. Garrison, Marni D. Allen, Margery Austin Turner, Jennifer Comey, Barika X. Williams, Elizabeth Guernsey, Mary Filardo, Nancy Huvendick and Ping Sung, April 24, 2008, The Brookings Institution
The District of Columbia is struggling to attract and retain families with children. Most newcomers are singles and childless couples. The total number of school-age children has declined slightly. Many of the city’s schools suffer from long-standing physical, management and academic problems. The availability of quality public schools, near affordable family-friendly housing, will help determine the city’s success. Read More
PAST EVENT
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Washington, DC
On Wednesday, April 23, Brookings hosted a panel discussion featuring James Q. Wilson and Peter Schuck, authors of Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation (Public Affairs, 2008). They were joined by expert panelists, who commented on how federalism and bureaucracy structure our institutions, and on how economic inequality and immigration shape our democratic society. Read More
VIDEO
Isabel V. Sawhill, February 20, 2008
Economic inequality across American households has been growing for a number of years. Isabel Sawhill, co-director of the Center on Children and Families and co-author of Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America examines how upwardly mobile we really are.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ron Haskins, Julia B. Isaacs and Isabel V. Sawhill, February 2008, Economic Mobility Project
Is America still the land of opportunity and mobility? How much opportunity to get ahead actually exists in America? Brookings scholars Julia Isaacs, Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins provide new evidence and summarize research on both the extent of intergenerational mobility in the United States and the factors that influence it. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Eloise Pasachoff, January 2008, CCF Working Paper
In a CCF working paper, Eloise Pasachoff argues that the federal government has an important role to ensure equal educational opportunity for all. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ron Haskins, January 23, 2008, House Committee on Education and Labor
While the nation has been struggling to eliminate the education gap, Ron Haskins testifies on ways to improve all preschool education received by poor children. Read More
VIDEO
Ron Haskins and Martha Raddatz, January 07, 2008
In the late 1990s, Congress and President Clinton collaborated on bi-partisan legislation that led to a substantial decline in child poverty in the United States – especially in African-American communities. Ron Haskins explains that the next president should reinvigorate the fight against poverty through increasing benefits while requiring more personal responsibility.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
John Karl Scholz, December 2007, Hamilton Project Discussion Paper
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Julia B. Isaacs and Isabel V. Sawhill, November 28, 2007, The Brookings Institution
A sharp rise in income inequality in the United States has created large gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Based on new Brookings research, most of today’s adults are better off than their own parents were when they were growing up. The converse: one third remains worse off. Many middle-class families are only one earner away from poverty. Isabel Sawhill and Julia Isaacs argue that America could and should do better, through better access to education, including early childhood education. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Isabel V. Sawhill, October 17, 2007, Child Trends Annual Kristin Anderson Moore Lecture
In the first annual Kristin Anderson Moore lecture for Child Trends, Isabel Sawhill discusses how future generations will have to deal with the challenges of globalization and low savings rates, and emphasizes the need for higher education and fiscal responsibility. Read More
BOOK
Suman Bery, Barry P. Bosworth and Arvind Panagariya, October 01, 2007
India Policy Forum is an annual publication with the objective of presenting high-quality empirical research on the major economic policy issues that confront contemporary India. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jason Furman, September 06, 2007, House Committee on Ways and Means
Hamilton Project Director Jason Furman testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on fair and equitable tax policy for America's working families. Read More