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Publication
Policy Research: The Field DimensionField research, defined as an unstructured contact with public problems and programs, is essential to realistic policy research. Research linking governmental action to good outcomes is rare, because those who study government and those whose who analyze …
Publication
State Political Culture and Welfare ReformI investigate the link between the general features of state governments and their ability to reform welfare. The best indicator of governments’ characteristics is Elazar’s political cultures. I define what successful welfare reform means, drawing on …
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Welfare Caseload Change: An Alternative ApproachIn the last decade, caseloads in AFDC/TANF have shifted dramatically up, then down. Of existing studies based on time series or state panel data, some tend to underplay the role of welfare reform. All say little about that policies drove the decline or …
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Welfare Reform in Wisconsin: The Local RoleThe article suggests a new model for the implementation of social programs based on welfare reform in Wisconsin. Existing models tend to be top-down or bottom-up, but in Wisconsin the leading counties and the state government worked interactively to …
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Implementing Work Requirements in WisconsinWhen Western counties seek to reform welfare so that recipients have to work in return for aid, this poses implementation as well as policy problems. This study of work requirements in Wisconsin illustrates the challenges. It also confirms success of a …
Publication
Caseload Change: An Exploratory StudyThe national caseload of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (since 1996, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) rose 34 percent between 1989 and 1994,then fell 50 percent through June 1999 (data from U.S. Administration for Children and Families). …
Publication
The Twilight of Liberal Welfare ReformThirty years ago, welfare reform was a liberal issue. In the 1960s and 1970s, government planners proposed that cash welfare benefits be raised and extended to the entire low-income population. But those proposals were rejected, and since the 1970s, the …
Publication
Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion, Poverty, and Welfare ReformPeople who participate in debates about the causes and cures of poverty often speak from religious conviction. But those convictions are rarely made explicit or debated on their own terms. Rarely is the influence of personal religious commitment on policy …
Publication
Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress toward Racial EqualityIn the 1960s, many believed that the civil rights movement’s successes would foster a new era of racial equality in America. Four decades later, the degree of racial inequality has barely changed. To understand what went wrong, Patrick Sharkey argues that …
Publication
Where, When, Why, and For Whom Do Residential Contexts Matter? Moving Away from the Dichotomous Understanding of Neighborhood EffectsThe literature on neighborhood effect frequently is evaluated or interpreted in relation to the question, "Do neighborhoods matter?" We argue that this question has had a disproportionate influence on the field and does not align with the complexity of …
Publication
Spatial Segmentation and the Black Middle ClassEthnographic studies of the black middle class focus attention on the ways in which residential environments condition the experiences of different segments of the black class structure. This study places these arguments in a larger demographic context by …
Publication
Mobility and the MetropolisIn a 2011 public opinion poll, The Pew Charitable Trusts asked Americans how important they thought a number of factors were in determining whether people in the United States get ahead or fall behind economically. More than 80 percent of respondents …
Publication
Residential Mobility and the Reproduction of Unequal NeighborhoodsHousing assistance policy has shifted away from project-based assistance toward tenantbased assistance. This shift in approach reflects a common assumption that, if families have the option to find homes on their own in the private market, they will seek …
Publication
The Effect of Local Violence on Children’s Attention and Impulse ControlObjectives: We examined whether the burden of violence in a child’s community environment alters the child’s behavior and functioning in the classroom setting. Methods: To identify the effects of local violence, we exploited variation in the timing of …
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Converging Evidence for Neighborhood Effects on Children’s Test Scores: An Experimental, Quasi-Experimental, and Observational ComparisonRising income inequality has been found to be associated with rising segregation at the neighborhood level, generating concern about whether neighborhood environments themselves may influence children’s life chances, independent of other individual child …
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Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability among African-American ChildrenDisparities in verbal ability, a major predictor of later life outcomes, have generated widespread debate, but few studies have been able to isolate neighborhood-level causes in a developmentally and ecologically appropriate way. This study presents …
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Survival and Death in New Orleans: An Empirical Look at the Human Impact of KatrinaHurricane Katrina has been interpreted as both a “metaphor” for the racial inequality that characterizes urban America and as a purely “natural” disaster that happened to strike a predominantly Black city. To resolve these conflicting interpretations, the …
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Pathways to Work for Low Income Workers: The Effect of Work in the Temporary Help IndustryThis paper provides new evidence to inform the policy debate about the effect of a newly important industry—the temporary help industry—on the labor market outcomes of low-income workers and those workers who are at risk of being on public assistance. The …
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The Role of Medicaid in Improving Access to Care for Homeless PeopleThis report examines the ability of homeless people to get the health care they need. In particular, it asks whether having health insurance increases access to care for homeless people, as it does for the housed population. Within the general rubric of …
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The 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients: A Comparison of Faith-Based and Secular Non-Profit ProgramsOne of the most dramatic findings to emerge from the 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC) is the tremendous growth in the number and variety of homeless assistance programs during the late 1980s and early 1990s. While …