RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Julia B. Isaacs, November 05, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children, measured on a per capita basis, with the ratio rising to 7 to 1 if looking just at the federal budget, Julia Isaacs finds. She looks at expenditures on children and the elderly in the United States compared to other countries and, from a life-cycle perspective, asks whether these spending patterns makes sense for the long-term good of our country. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ron Haskins, October 16, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Ron Haskins argues that California's recent decision to allow a substantial number of its welfare recipients to avoid work requirements will reverse nearly a decade and a half of hard-won progress against parental idleness and child poverty. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
R. Kent Weaver, September 30, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Voters elect governments to solve social problems and governments design and implement an array of programs to ensure the public good. However, little theoretical attention has been devoted to the final step of the implementation chain: explanations of why the targets of public policies do or do not “comply” with those policies. Kent Weaver focuses on why program “targets” frequently fail to act in the way that program designers intended and wanted, even when it appears to be in their self-interest to do so. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Ron Haskins, September 22, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Ron Haskins states that one of the few government strategies that has proven successful in reducing poverty is encouraging or demanding that adults on welfare work, even at low wage jobs, and then subsidizing their earnings but with employment, income, and earnings stagnant or in decline for nearly a decade now, it is time to worry. Read More
BOOK
Ron Haskins and Isabel V. Sawhill, September 15, 2009
Creating an Opportunity Society examines economic opportunity in the United States and explores how to create more of it, particularly for those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Read More
VIDEO
Ron Haskins, April 01, 2009
Many states are considering legislation that would take benefits away from welfare, food stamp and unemployment benefit recipients who test positive for drug use. Senior Fellow Ron Haskins examines the proposed legislation and says in most cases taking away benefits would be counterproductive.
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
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
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
Alice M. Rivlin, May 08, 2008, The American Academy of Political and Social Science
The following remarks were delivered by Alice Rivlin upon accepting the Inaugural Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize on May 8th, 2008 at the The American Academy of Political and Social Science. In addition to speaking about her relationship with Moynihan, Rivlin spoke about the issues of welfare and race. Read More
PAST EVENT
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
9:00 AM to 11:15 AM
Washington, DC
The Center on Children and Families and the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy held a forum to discuss the policy challenges posed by single mothers who have not been able to find stable employment and who may have used up their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families eligibility or face sanctions. These women head the families that are most vulnerable to the current economic downswing. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Rebecca M. Blank and Brian Kovak, May 07, 2008, Brookings Institution
There are a growing number of low-income single mothers who are long-term welfare recipients or are without steady employment. They tend to face more barriers to stable employment, with less education, younger children, higher rates of mental and physical health problems and substance abuse, and a history of domestic violence. In this brief, Rebecca Blank and Brian Kovak propose a new program to link these mothers to medical and economic support and give them greater assistance in securing employment. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Thomas W. Sanchez and Lisa Schweitzer, February 21, 2008, The Brookings Institution
In this report, the authors review the past 40 years of federal policy toward transportation mobility for low-income workers, including the most recent Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program, administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). 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.
PAST EVENT
Thursday, September 20, 2007
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Washington, DC
Although the nation is no longer achieving major reductions in poverty as it did during the 1960s, some gains have been made in recent years, especially among single mothers. But more progress is needed in focusing antipoverty efforts on men. Panelists at this event explored two sets of public policies – wage subsidies and work requirements – that hold promise for helping young men increase their employment and earnings. Read More