SESSION 1: Poverty Research over Four Decades |
| Time: |
11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. |
| Room: |
Monona Terrace: Lecture Hall |
| Chair: |
Robert Haveman (University of Wisconsin–Madison) |
| Participant: |
Sheldon Danziger (University of Michigan) |
| Title: |
Fighting Poverty Revisited: What Did Researchers
Know 40 Years Ago? What Do We Know Today? |
| Abstract: |
Danziger rejects the view that poverty remains
high mainly because government provided too much aid for the poor
and thereby encouraged dysfunctional labor market and marital behaviors.
Most increases in poverty have resulted from slow economic growth
and rising inequality. Danziger argues that, given the political
will, policies he will discuss offer a promising basis for a new
antipoverty initiative in the United States. |
| Participant: |
Gary Burtless (The Brookings Institution) |
| Title: |
What Have We Learned and What Do We Need to Learn
about the Sources of Poverty? Evidence from Cross-National Analysis |
| Abstract: |
Burtless considers what we have learned from cross-national
analyses of the sources of poverty, and it describes what these
analyses can still teach us about both the effects of antipoverty
policies and their behavioral consequences. One lesson from recent
studies is plain. Although average real income in the United States
is higher than it is in almost any other country, the United States
also has one of the highest poverty rates in the rich industrialized
world, whether poverty is measured using an absolute or a relative
standard for determining who is poor. |
| Discussant: |
Mitch Duneier (Princeton University) |
| Title: |
The Role of Observational Research in Understanding
the Poverty Problem |
| Abstract: |
Duneier will focus on the complementarity between
conventional quantitative poverty research and qualitative observational
research, emphasizing what we have learned about the nature and
causes of poverty from participant observation research. He will
suggest priorities for future qualitative poverty research and
the possibilities for increased integration of the quantitative
and qualitative approaches. |
| Discussant: |
Glenn Loury (Brown University) |
| Title: |
The Role of ‘Culture’ in Understanding
the Poverty Problem |
| Abstract: |
Loury will be talking about what we have learned,
and what we should therefore be doing, regarding the nexus between
culture and poverty. “Culture” is taken to mean expectations
shared by members of an interacting community, values reinforced
within and between families, normative pressures for conformity
with peers, and systems of belief about behaviors appropriate to
one's role, etc. |
| Discussant: |
Marta Tienda (Princeton University) |
| Title: |
Opportunities Taken or Lost: Insights from the
Transition of Hispanic Youth |
| Abstract: |
Tienda will discuss Hispanic youth at an important
crossroads, focusing on the Hispanic generational transition and
what it portends for the contours of economic inequality, given
recent trends in educational attainment—are opportunities
being taken, or are they being lost? |
SESSION 2: Poverty Policy over Four Decades |
| Time: |
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. |
| Room: |
Monona Terrace: Lecture Hall |
| Chair: |
Timothy Smeeding (Syracuse University) |
| Participant: |
Douglas Besharov (American Enterprise Institute and University
of Maryland-College Park) |
| Title: |
Poverty Over Forty Years: Real Progress, Continuing Deprivation,
and New Problems |
| Abstract: |
Besharov will explore the decline in official poverty (and rising
incomes) of various demographic or social groups, its causes, and
what it suggests for policy. For example, he will discuss the drop
in the poverty rate for single mothers and explore what was responsible
for the decline. He will also explore the increase in poverty (and
declining incomes) among other groups, especially among low-skilled
African American men. |
| Participant: |
Robert Moffitt (Johns Hopkins University) |
| Title: |
Four Decades of Anti Poverty Policy: Past Developments and Future
Directions |
| Abstract: |
Moffitt will review the decline of the AFDC-TANF program relative
to in-kind transfer programs and the EITC. He will also examine the
trends in federal, state, and local expenditures. The historical
account of policy developments will be accompanied by a discussion
of how thinking among policy makers and researchers, based on the
results of research studies, has evolved |
| Discussant: |
John Karl Scholz (University of Wisconsin–Madison) |
| Title: |
Tax Policy and Low-Income Households |
| Abstract: |
Scholz will discuss selected features of the evolution of federal
tax policy over the past 40 years as it affects low income families.
Themes include ensuring families with incomes below the poverty line
no longer have positive income tax liabilities, the expansion of
the EITC, the role played by tax expenditures in tax policy, and
the issue of refundable credits (including the child credit). |
| Discussant: |
Marcia Meyers (University of Washington-Seattle) |
| Title: |
The Governance, Organization, and Management of Antipoverty Policy |
| Abstract: |
Meyers will discuss the organization and management of antipoverty
policy including the growing role of nonprofits as antipoverty policy
agents. The organization of contemporary antipoverty policy reflects
political conflicts and institutional choices of the past—and
sets the stage for policy alternatives in the future. |
| Discussant: |
Jane Waldfogel (Columbia University) |
| Title: |
Meeting Children's Needs When Parents Work |
| Abstract: |
Waldfogel will discuss work-family issues and child poverty policy.
As anti-poverty policies have emphasized the central role of increasing
parental employment and earnings, this shift has implications in
terms of the need for improved policies to meet the needs of children
when parents work. |
