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IRP, at the UW-Madison, is a center for interdisciplinary research into the causes and consequences of poverty and social inequality in the United States. As one of three National Poverty Research Centers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, IRP has a particular interest in poverty and family welfare in Wisconsin as well as the nation.

IRP Podcasts

IRP announces its new series of podcasts, hosted by David Chancellor.

Listen to our podcast on UW–Madison's iTunes U.

Thinking about Decision Making in the Context of Poverty (May 2013)

In this podcast, Crystal Hall of the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs talks about her work applying insights from behavioral and cognitive psychology to better understand the decision making of people living in the context of poverty. Hall explains how the operating assumptions of programs and services might not do a good job at taking account of the many tradeoffs that people with fewer material resources have to make.

Listen to the podcast

Evaluating the Post-Katrina New Orleans School System (April 2013)

Douglas Harris, associate professor of economics and University Endowed Chair in Public Education at Tulane University in New Orleans, talks about the development of the charter school system in New Orleans coming out of Hurricane Katrina. He explains some of the likely hypotheses for why New Orleans' schools might be doing better and discusses the challenges of measuring improvement in the city's schools.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

The Employment Prospects of Formerly Incarcerated People and Off-the-Books Work (February 2013)

Bryan Sykes, a sociologist at DePaul University, explains some of the barriers that former inmates encounter when trying to find work and how the costs of incarceration disproportionately affect young African American men. He also talks about his work on off-the-books labor and how former inmates still face heavy discrimination in the informal economy.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

The EITC and Tax Refunds for Low-Income Tax Filers (December 2012)

Damon Jones, an economist at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, talks about how the EITC and other refundable tax credits can combine to create a large once-a-year lump sum payment for low-income tax filers and how that payment structure affects the ways that those funds are used.*

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

Multiple-Partner Fertility and Disadvantaged Families (November 2012)

Marcy Carlson, professor of sociology at UW–Madison, talks about parents having kids with more than one partner and how this can be a challenge for families and for policymakers.

For more on this topic, please see Professor Carlson's webcast presentation at the Population Reference Bureau.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

The Balance Sheets of Low-Income People (October 2012)

J. Michael Collins, director of the Center for Financial Security, explains some of the efforts behind getting more low-income people to save money and talks about the challenges in developing good policy and helpful financial products for the underbanked population.

For more on this, check out the following links:

• FDIC Underbanked research
  http://economicinclusion.gov/
• US Government site on money management
  http://www.mymoney.gov/myresources.html
• Industry collaborative to create products for the underserved
  http://cfsinnovation.com/

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

Spatial measurement of child poverty in the United States (September 2012)

Katherine Curtis of University of Wisconsin–Madison's Department of Community and Environmental Sociology talks about developing spatial measurements of poverty and how it is critical to consider locally specific factors when trying to understand the drivers of poverty and child poverty.*

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

Food security trends and an introduction to the Wisconsin Food Security Project (August 2012)

Judi Bartfeld, director of the IRP-USDA RIDGE Center, professor with the Department of Consumer Science, and specialist with the University of Wisconsin–Extension, discusses the growth in food insecurity following the Great Recession, measurement methods, and the development of the Wisconsin Food Security Project website.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

Income volatility trends in the United States and their potential impact on the poor (July 2012)

In July's podcast, Bradley Hardy of American University talks about trends in U.S. income volatility and how shifts towards greater volatility can particularly impact low-income people.

Listen to the podcast

Can behavioral economics contribute to poverty research? (June 2012)

Justin Sydnor, a microeconomist at the Wisconsin School of Business, talks about the growing field of behavioral economics and how it can be applied to research on poverty and the problems facing low-wage workers.*

Listen to the podcast

Measuring unmet food need in San Francisco and Marin County (May 2012)

In IRP's first podcast, Dave talks with Christopher Wimer of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality about Wimer's work on measuring unmet food need in San Francisco and Marin County, California.*

Listen to the podcast