What's New at IRP: 2011–2012
| Spotlight |
ASPE Awards IRP 5-Year National Poverty Center Grant
IRP has joined the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University and the University of California, Davis,
Center for Poverty Research as one of three national centers designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). |
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Fast Focus No. 12-2011
American Poverty and Inequality: Key Trends and Future Research Directions
Provides an overview of the three recurring themes in poverty and policy around which IRP has organized its research agenda for the ASPE award period. |
| Publications |
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Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting:The Comparative Study of Intergenerational Mobility
Edited by Timothy Smeeding, Robert Erikson, and Markus Jäntti
(Russell Sage Foundation, September 2011)
Authors: Timothy Smeeding, Robert Erikson, and Markus Jäntti; Jo Blanden, Kathryn Wilson, Robert Haveman, and Timothy Smeeding; Miles Corak, Lori Curtis, and Shelly Phipps; Fabian T. Pfeffer; Janne O. Jonsson, David B. Grusky, Reinhard Pollak, Matthew Di Carlo, and Carina Mood; Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook; Greg J. Duncan, Kjetil Telle, Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, and Ariel Kalil; John Ermisch, and Chiara Pronzato; John Jerrim and John Micklewright; Julie Zissimopoulos and James P. Smith; Brian Nolan, Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Christopher T. Whelan, Bertrand Maitre, and Sander Wagner |
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Fast Focus No. 11-2011
Stepparents and Half-Siblings: Family Complexity from a Child's Perspective
Maria Cancian, Daniel R. Meyer, and Steven T. Cook
Summarizes findings published in the journal Demography, which document the incidence and evolution of family complexity from the perspective of children. |
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Focus 28(1)
Authors: Jane L. Collins and Victoria Mayer; Lawrence M. Mead; Timothy M. Smeeding, Irwin Garfinkel, and Ronald B. Mincy; Richard Blundell |
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Fast Focus 10-2011
Jobs, Skills, and Policy for Lower-Wage Workers
Robert H. Haveman, Carolyn J. Heinrich, and Timothy M. Smeeding
Summarizes presentations made at the March 2011 IRP conference on Employment Prospects for Lower-Wage Workers: Easing the Implications of a Slow Recovery |
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The Annals Vol. 635(1)
“Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Families, Poverty, and Policy” Edited by Timothy Smeeding, Irwin Garfinkel, and Ronald Mincy
Authors: Timothy M. Smeeding, Irwin Garfinkel, and Ronald B. Mincy; Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada, Joseph McLaughlin, and Sheila Palma; Lawrence M. Berger and Callie E. Langton; Laura Tach and Kathryn Edin; Marcia J. Carlson and Katherine A. Magnuson; Alford A. Young, Jr.; Devah Pager; Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.; Maria Cancian, Daniel R. Meyer, and Eunhee Han; Carolyn J. Heinrich and Harry J. Holzer; Steven Raphael; Virginia Knox, Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape Cowan, and Elana Bildner; Ronald B. Mincy, Serena Klempin, and Heather Schmidt |
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Wisconsin Poverty Report: Were Antipoverty Policies Effective in 2009?
Joanna Y. Marks, Julia B. Isaacs, Timothy M. Smeeding, and Katherine A. Thornton |
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Recent IRP Discussion Papers
Sara Goldrick-Rab, Douglas N. Harris, James Benson, and Robert Kelchen, “Conditional Cash Transfers and College Persistence: Evidence from a Randomized Need-Based Grant Program,” DP 1393-11.
Yonatan Ben-Shalom, Robert Moffitt, and John Karl Scholz, “An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Programs in the United States,” DP-1392-11.
Fabian T. Pfeffer and Sara Goldrick-Rab, “Unequal Pathways through American Universities,” DP 1391-11, PDF link.
Harry J. Holzer, “Immigration Policy and Less-Skilled Workers in the United States: Reflections on Future Directions for Reform,” DP 1390-11.
Julia B. Isaacs, “Child Poverty during the Great Recession: Predicting State Child Poverty Rates for 2010,” DP 1389-11. |
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The Other Side of the World, Vision and Reality: Selected Reflections of India 44’s Peace Corps Volunteers
Compiled by Mary Jo Clark, Thomas Corbett (IRP Affiliate), Michael Simonds, and Haywood Turrentine (forthcoming in fall 2011 from Strategic Book Group). |
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Preconception Mental Health Predicts Pregnancy Complications and
Adverse Birth Outcomes: A National Population-Based Study in Maternal and Child Health Journal
Whitney P. Witt (IRP affiliate), Lauren E. Wisk, Erika R. Cheng, John M. Hampton, and Erika W. Hagen
“Our research suggests that if we can prevent pregnancy complications in African-American women we may be able to eliminate the disparity
in low birth weight. Intervening earlier in women’s reproductive lives may help ensure that women of any race or ethnicity have an equal \
chance to deliver a healthy baby," notes Whitney Witt.
Challenges of mothers of low-birth-weight babies (12/14/2011) |
| Events |
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Seminars
IRP seminars cross disciplinary boundaries to bring the latest research by top poverty scholars on and off campus to the Institute. They take place on Thursdays, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m., in room 8417 Social Science Building (unless otherwise noted), and are open to the public.
Fall Seminar Schedule
Spring Seminar Schedule |
| Visiting Scholars |
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Poverty Researchers from Underrepresented Groups
Juan J. DelaCruz; Bradley Hardy; LaShawnDa Pittman-Gay
Food Assistance Researchers
Andrea Anater; Rusty Tchernis; Christopher Wimer
Self-Supported Researchers
Sara Ayllón Gatnau; Sara LaLumia; Joseph Marchand
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| Robert J. Lampman Memorial Lecture |
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“Poverty and Poor Health: Can Health Care Reform Break the Link?” Robert J. Lampman Memorial Lecture by Barbara L. Wolfe, June 21, 2011: Slides and video of the presentation are on IRP’s website. |
| Poverty Measurement Research & Website Resource |
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Wisconsin Poverty Measure and Third Annual Wisconsin Poverty Report
Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) Technical Resources and Repository
Wisconsin Poverty Project Spinoff:
Better Data, Better Outcomes: How Public Policy is Helping Poor Children, Julia Isaacs |
| IRP RIDGE Center for National Food & Nutrition Assistance Research |
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RIDGE Center Food Assistance Research Grants
Visiting Food Assistance Scholars
RIDGE Food Assistance Research Seminars
2011–2012 RIDGE Center research theme: “Food Assistance Programs, Food Choices, and Obesity and Other Health Outcomes”
Stay in touch with the IRP RIDGE Center for National Research by subscribing to our listserv; send an e-mail to irpridge-request@ssc.wisc.edu. |
| Center on Child Welfare Policy and Practice |
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IRP and the School of Social Work (SSW) formally established a campus presence as the Center on Child Welfare Policy and Practice (CCWPP), which is codirected by IRP Associate Director Jennifer Noyes and SSW Director and IRP Affiliate Kristen Shook Slack. The CCWPP engages in interdisciplinary efforts to inform child welfare policy and practice knowledge through enhanced collaboration and communication among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.
On August 26, CCWPP codirectors Jennifer Noyes and Kristen Shook Slack, along with IRP affiliate Maria Cancian and Mary Anne Snyder of the Wisconsin Children’s Trust Fund, presented a session in Washington, D.C., at the 2011 National Child Welfare Evaluation Summit hosted by U.S. DHHS/ACF Children’s Bureau, on “Using Integrated Data to Support Program Management, Evaluation, and Design.” More information |
| IRP Affiliate Honors |
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APPAM officers: Ludwig, Allard, Carlson & Waldfogel
IRP affiliates are among the new officers and council members elected by members of the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public policy and management by fostering excellence in research, analysis and education.
Jens Ludwig, University of Chicago, is the new APPAM Vice President; Scott Allard, University of Chicago, is a Policy Council member, as are Marcia Carlson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University. |
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Thomas DeLeire Named New La Follette Director
Congratulations to Thomas DeLeire on his appointment as the new director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs. DeLeire is an associate professor of public affairs, population health sciences, and economics and an IRP affiliate. |
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Sara Goldrick-Rab was awarded a William T. Grant Foundation Mentoring Award for her work with Jesus Renteria, a second-year doctoral student with whom she shares a common research interest in inequality in higher education and the ways in which race, social class, and gender affect college students. |
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Robert Haveman, Timothy Smeeding, and coauthors received the 2010 Best Comparative Paper Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and the International Comparative Policy Analysis Forum. The award is for the paper, "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States and Great Britain: A Comparative Study of Parent-Child Pathways." The coauthors are Jo Blanden of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and Kathryn Wilson of Kent State University in Ohio. |
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Moynihan elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration
UW-Madison public affairs professor Donald Moynihan has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, one of the youngest members to be elected since Congress chartered the academy in 1967. |
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Andrew Reschovsky was awarded the national 2011 Steven D. Gold Award, in recognition of his significant contributions to public financial management in the field of intergovernmental relations and state and local finance. Press release: http://www.news.wisc.edu/19835. |
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Harry J. Holzer received the Hamilton Project’s 2011 Policy Innovation Prize for the best proposal to create jobs and enhance productivity. The Hamilton Project is a Brookings Institution economic policy initiative that introduces evidence-based public policy proposals. In his award-winning proposal, Holzer recommends establishment of a competitive grant system to fund workforce development initiatives based on training programs that have been proven to raise employment and wages. Read his award-winning proposal here. |
IRP Affiliate and Graduate Student Highlights:
IRP Affiliates and Graduate Students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Katherine Magnuson, IRP Associate Director of Research and Training and Associate Professor of Social Work, has been awarded a Romnes Faculty Fellowship for 2010–2011. The award, supported by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, recognizes an exceptional faculty member who has earned tenure within the last four years. Each winner receives an unrestricted $50,000 award for research support. Magnuson’s research focuses on the well-being and development of economically disadvantaged children and their families. She examines how disparities in socioeconomic status affect children’s development, and how these effects may be altered by policies and programs, especially early childhood education programs.
- Steven Durlauf, the Kenneth J. Arrow Professor of Economics and IRP Affiliate, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served as the co-director of the economics program of the Santa Fe Institute and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests span macroeconomics, econometrics, and income inequality.
- Lauren Schudde, doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and IRP Graduate Research Fellow, was awarded an IRP Graduate Research Fellows Program dissertation fellowship for the summer of 2011. Her dissertation, “Affording Success: The Causal Impact of Financial Constraints on the College Experience,” is being supervised by her faculty sponsor, Sara Goldrick-Rab, Assistant Professor of Sociology.
- Laura Dague, doctoral candidate in the Department of Economics and IRP Graduate Research Fellow, was awarded summer 2011 support for her dissertation research on “Effects of Premiums and Copayments on Insurance Coverage, Utilization, and Health among a Publicly Insured Low-Income Population,” supervised by her faculty sponsor, Tom DeLeire, Associate Professor of Public Affairs and Population Health Sciences and IRP Affiliate.
- Kathryn Maguire Jack, School of Social Work Doctoral Candidate and IRP Graduate Research Fellow, was awarded a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Fellowship on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, which provides $25,000 per year for two years to support her dissertation research on county variation in child maltreatment in Wisconsin. In addition to the award, she will join fourteen doctoral students from across the country and participate in a two-year mentoring, networking, and training initiative designed by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Maguire Jack’s advisors are Professors of Social Work and IRP Affiliates Kristin Shook Slack and Lawrence Berger.
IRP Affiliates at Institutions Nationwide
The following three IRP national affiliates were among the new members who were recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences, in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research:
- Sara S. McLanahan, William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. was among the 72 National Academy of Sciences members elected in 2011. McLanahan is the founder and director of the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton. Her research interests include family demography, poverty and inequality, and social policy. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of non-traditional family structures.
- Greg J. Duncan, Distinguished Professor, Department of Education, University of California, Irvine, was among the 72 National Academy of Sciences members elected in 2010. The focus of Duncan’s recent research has shifted from these environmental influences to the comparative importance of the skills and behaviors developed during childhood. In particular, he has sought to understand the relative importance of early academic skills, cognitive and emotional self-regulation, and health in promoting children’s eventual success in school and the labor market.
- Robert Mare, Distinguished Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, was among the 72 National Academy of Sciences members elected in 2010. Mare’s work focuses on three areas: (1) dynamic analysis of residential mobility and residential segregation; (2) educational assortative mating and marriage markets; and (3) the joint analysis of social mobility, fertility, marriage, and other demographic processes.
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