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Saturday July 19, 2008

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RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

Save to My PortfolioMetro Raise: Boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit to Help Metropolitan Workers and Families

Alan Berube, David Park and Elizabeth Kneebone, June 05, 2008, The Brookings Institution

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

Save to My PortfolioPeriodic Payment of the Earned Income Tax Credit

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

Save to My PortfolioOur Unequal Democracy? The Political Causes and Consequences of America’s Growing Income Gap

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

Save to My PortfolioPlanning for Quality Schools: Meeting the Needs of District Families

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

Save to My PortfolioReexamining American Exceptionalism

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Washington, DC

Reuters/Jim YoungOn 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

Save to My PortfolioEconomic Mobility

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

Save to My PortfolioGetting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America

Ron Haskins, Julia B. Isaacs and Isabel V. Sawhill, February 2008, Economic Mobility Project

Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in AmericaIs 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

Save to My PortfolioHow the Federal Government Can Improve School Financing Systems

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

Save to My PortfolioInvesting in Early Education: Paths to Improving Children's Success

Ron Haskins, January 23, 2008, House Committee on Education and Labor

Investing in Early Education: Paths to Improving Children's SuccessWhile 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

Save to My PortfolioAttacking Poverty and Inequality

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

Save to My PortfolioEmployment-Based Tax Credits for Low-Skilled Workers

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

Save to My PortfolioThe Frayed American Dream

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

Save to My PortfolioThe Intergenerational Balancing Act: Where Children Fit in an Aging Society

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

Save to My PortfolioIndia Policy Forum 2006-07

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

Save to My PortfolioFair and Equitable Tax Policy

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

In Brief

Economic inequality reflects factors as diverse as education, IQ, lack of opportunity and discrimination. But government policies also make a difference. Today the top 1 percent of Americans own 38 percent of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 40 percent possesses less than 1 percent of U.S. wealth. Globally, economic disparities pose even greater challenges as they can contribute to cycles of poverty, disease, social unrest and political turmoil.

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Research ProjectLatin America Initiative

The Latin America Initiative provides high-quality, in-depth, and independent research across a range of economic and political issues, and offers policy recommendations aimed at U.S. and Latin American policymakers. Read More

ExpertAlice M. Rivlin

Alice Rivlin, the first director of the Congressional Budget Office, is an expert on urban issues as well as fiscal, monetary and social policy. She directs the Greater Washington Research project. 

ExpertBenjamin Wittes

Benjamin Wittes, a New Republic online columnist, focuses on the Supreme Court; judicial nominations and confirmations; and legal issues surrounding the war on terrorism.

Policy CenterEngelberg Center for Health Care Reform

The Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform provides practical solutions to achieve high-quality, innovative, affordable health care with particular emphasis on identifying opportunities on the national, state and local levels.

ExpertHugh B. Price

Former president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League, Hugh Price is an expert on education, civil rights, equal opportunity and criminal justice. His 40-year career spans journalism, philanthropy, the law, and social advocacy.

ExpertSuzanne Maloney

Suzanne Maloney studies Iran, the political economy of the Persian Gulf and Middle East energy policy. A former U.S. State Department policy advisor, she has also counseled private companies on Middle East issues.

ExpertBruce Katz

Bruce Katz, vice president and founding director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, regularly advises national, state, regional and municipal leaders on policy reforms that advance the competitiveness of metropolitan areas.

ExpertMartin Neil Baily

Martin Baily, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, focuses on issues of globalization, productivity and competitiveness, Social Security reform and U.S. economic policy.

Research ProjectManaging Global Insecurity

MGI provides recommendations to the next U.S. president, the UN and key international partners to launch a strategic effort to build global partnerships and international institutions to meet twenty-first century trans-border challenges.

ExpertRebecca Blank

Rebecca Blank is an expert on the interaction between the macroeconomy, government anti-poverty programs, and the behavior and well being of low-income families. She has just been named the Robert V. Kerr senior fellow at Brookings.

ExpertSarah A. Binder

Sarah Binder is an expert on Congress and legislative politics.  Her current projects focus on the politics of federal judicial selection and the consequences of partisan polarization.

Policy CenterWolfensohn Center for Development

The Wolfensohn Center seeks effective solutions to key development challenges in order to create a more prosperous and stable world with a focus on aid effectiveness, early childhood development and Middle East youth.

ExpertDavid B. Sandalow

A former assistant secretary of state and White House staffer, Sandalow is author of "Freedom from Oil" and an expert on energy policy and global warming.

ProgramGovernance Studies

Governance Studies explores political institutions of the United States and other democracies to assess how they govern, how their practices compare and how citizens and public servants can advance sound governance.

ExpertWilliam Galston

Bill Galston, the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies, is an expert on domestic policy, political campaigns and elections. His research focuses on designing a new social contract and the implications of political polarization.

ExpertWarwick J. McKibbin

An international economics expert based in Australia, Warwick McKibbin focuses his research on global climate change; the emergence of China and India into the world economy; and global economic modeling.