RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube, May 15, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The detailed FY 2010 federal budget reveals many elements of the administration’s strategy to achieve needed reforms in schooling and worker skills. Alan Berube analyzes the significant steps in the departments of Education and Labor budgets toward a national economic strategy that invests strategically in human capital to improve our collective prosperity. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Katz and Robert Puentes, January 12, 2009, The Brookings Institution
President Obama is preparing plans for an immediate economic stimulus package. At the same time, his new administration must consider how to make investments that will stabilize and strengthen our economy over the long term. Bruce Katz and Robert Puentes present their recommendations on bolstering infrastructure and investing in other economic drivers that can enhance long-term prosperity. 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, November 24, 2008, The Brookings Institution
A major economic slowdown adds to the problems of lower-income Americans, who have not shared in the economic growth of the last decade. Greater investments in economic mobility and opportunity are needed. Rebecca Blank offers policy solutions and priorities for the president-elect to make greater investments in economic mobility and opportunity. 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
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Rebecca M. Blank, August 31, 2008, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Project
The poor in American cut across all groups, but are disproportionately represented by single mothers and their children, by persons of color, by immigrants, by less-skilled individuals, or by those with physical or mental disabilities. Many working poor and near-poor families face problems with low wages or unstable jobs. This paper by Rebecca Blank outlines three strategic areas where policy and research attention should focus over the next decade. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Julia B. Isaacs, August 21, 2008, The Brookings Institution
Julia Isaacs details the evidence supporting the long-term benefits of investment in early childhood education, along with prenatal care and greater access to health care for very young children in impoverished families. In a new Opportunity 08 paper, she proposes federal policies for the next President that will provide big returns. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jason Furman, May 15, 2008, Project HOPE/ Health Affairs
Tax incentives for employer-sponsored insurance and other medical spending cost about $200 billion annually and have pervasive effects on coverage and costs. In this paper, Jason Furman surveys a range of proposals to reform health care, either by adding new tax incentives or by limiting or replacing the existing tax incentives. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Lael Brainard, March 20, 2008, Democracy Journal
Despite profound economic changes over recent years, America’s job-transition, or worker adjustment, program remains one of the weakest among advanced economies. Lael Brainard proposes fundamental changes in the nation’s programs in order to provide enhanced training and financial support to help American workers compete. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Lael Brainard, March 26, 2007, House Committee on Education and Labor
Testimony by Lael Brainard before the Committee on Education and Labor (3/26/07) Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Isabel V. Sawhill and Ron Haskins, February 28, 2007, Opportunity 08
Although the nation's poverty rate is higher now than it was in the 1970s, no President since Lyndon Johnson has made fighting poverty a major plank of his campaign or goal of his administration. With large and growing gaps between the rich and the poor, it is now time for presidential campaigns and the next President to focus on poverty and inequality in America. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Audrey Singer, February 28, 2007, Opportunity 08
Roughly 12 million people reside illegally in the United States. More are joining the workforce, and nearly half of these households have children. As presidential candidates debate solutions, Audrey Singer offers ideas for reform. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Amy Liu, Hugh B. Price and Rebecca Sohmer, February 28, 2007, Opportunity 08
Middle-class prosperity is the cornerstone of the American Dream. Americans believe that through hard work and education families can enter the middle class and keep on climbing. However, recent evidence shows that, even with a rebounding U.S. econom Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Katz, John C. Austin and Paul Dimond, February 28, 2007, Opportunity 08
America's Great Lakes region, once the core of the nation's industrial production and wealth creation, is losing ground rapidly. This 12-state region reaches from Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the east, to Minneapolis-St. Paul and St. Louis in the west. The competitiveness agenda of the next president should include an investment strategy that focuses on regional assets and institutions that steer the transition to the knowledge economy. Read More