Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pathways To Careers In Health Care, Christopher T. King Editor, Philip Young P. Hong Editor

Upjohn Press

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 effected major changes in the financing and delivery of health care in the United States. It also authorized creation of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants program (HPOG), a demonstration effort within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide opportunities for education and training that lead to jobs and career advancement in health care for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other low-income individuals and to respond to the increasing demand for health care professionals. …

Employment Outcomes Of The Clarksdale Hope Vi Program, Ramona Stone

Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

The HOPE VI initiative aimed to reshape neighborhoods in terms of their resident socioeconomic characteristics, business activity, levels of community collaboration, and economic growth. The goal of this research was to examine the relationship between education and employment while controlling for the type of housing received at relocation. This paper is part of a larger quasi-experimental research evaluation. Data sources included administrative records, baseline and follow-up surveys. The survey data was collected from the main adult in the family during face-to-face interviews two years apart. The questionnaire collected information about residents’ demographics, socioeconomic, health, housing, and satisfaction with the support …

Plastic Bags And Bamboo Stools, Grace R. Bithell

Marriott Student Review

This paper conducts a critical analyses of microfinance institutions. It gives an overview of the complexities of credit in developing countries and shows how microfinance fits into the equations. It discussed the successes and failures of microenterprises in trying to alleviate poverty. It also delves into best practices pertaining to lending to the poor and how microfinance is impacted by culture in developing nations.

Introduction, Ezra Rosser

Contributions to Books

This is the introduction to Holes in the Safety Net: Federalism and Poverty (Ezra Rosser ed., Cambridge University Press, 2019). The table of contents for the book, with links to the other chapters, can be found below: Introduction (this document) Ezra Rosser Part I: Welfare and Federalism Ch. 1 Federalism, Entitlement, and Punishment across the US Social Welfare State Wendy Bach Ch. 2 Laboratories of Suffering: Toward Democratic Welfare Governance Monica Bell, Andrea Taverna, Dhruv Aggarwal, and Isra Syed Ch. 3 The Difference in Being Poor in Red States versus Blue States Michele Gilman Part II: States, Federalism, and Antipoverty …

Understanding Remittances In Eritrea: An Exploratory Study, Fikresus Amahazion

International Journal of African Development

Migration has been characterized as a fundamental component of the human experience, and today there are several hundred million international migrants around the world. Although migrants leave their home country, they maintain links, particularly through remittances. Economic remittances supplement the domestic incomes of millions of poor families and are vital for many developing countries. This paper explores economic remittances into Eritrea, examining the particular trends, amounts received, and how remittances are generally consumed. Additionally, the paper explores general perceptions about remittances and their impact upon society in Eritrea. Based on interviews and focus group discussions with individuals and households across …

Does Eviction Cause Poverty? Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Cook County, Il, John Eric Humphries, Nicholas Mader, Daniel Tannenbaum, Winnie Van Dijk

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Each year, more than two million U.S. households have an eviction case filed against them. Many cities have recently implemented policies aimed at reducing the number of evictions, motivated by research showing strong associations between being evicted and subsequent adverse economic outcomes. Yet it is difficult to determine to what extent those associations represent causal relationships, because eviction itself is likely to be a consequence of adverse life events. This paper addresses that challenge and offers new causal evidence on how eviction affects financial distress, residential mobility, and neighborhood quality. We collect the near-universe of Cook County court records over …

Longer-Run Effects Of Antipoverty Policies On Disadvantaged Neighborhoods, David Neumark, Brian J. Asquith, Brittany Bass

Brian Asquith

We estimate the longer-run effects of minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and welfare on key economic indicators of economic self-sufficiency in disadvantaged neighborhoods. We find that the longer-run effects of the EITC are to increase employment and to reduce poverty and public assistance. We also find some evidence that higher welfare benefits had longer-run adverse effects, and quite robust evidence that tighter welfare time limits reduce poverty and public assistance in the longer run. The evidence on the long-run effects of the minimum wage on poverty and public assistance is not robust, with some evidence pointing to reductions …

Can Antipoverty Policies Change Neighborhood Outcomes In The Long Run?, Brian J. Asquith

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Behavioral Determinants Of Well-Being In Sierra Leone, Madison Levine

Master's Theses

Ensuring the needs of individuals are met leads to a more prosperous economy. Healthy economic activity is dependent on a supported community of people. These people express different levels of happiness depending on where they come from and make behavioral choices every day influenced by their association with their community. Currently most subjective data have come from western educated industrialized rich and democratic (WEIRD) areas. These results are placed as generalizations across all other countries and are not giving an adequate representation of well-being for the population in non-WEIRD areas. Our study outlines an in-depth survey covering subjective well-being measurements …

Off The Farm: An Evaluation Of Non-Farm Earnings And Employment On Poverty Alleviation In Rural Nicaragua, Magaly Vanessa Saenz Somarriba

Graduate Masters Theses

In Nicaragua, poverty disproportionately affects the rural population. Over the last two decades, rural inhabitants have increased their participation in the Rural Non-Farm (RNF) sector. This study uses four waves of data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) between 2001 and 2014 to test whether the transition to the RNF sector decreases poverty rates and increases consumption. To account for the endogeneity of RNF participation and measures of well-being like consumption, I use an instrumental variables approach. I use a policy enacted in 2006 that induced plausibly exogenous variation in electrification rates over the same period to instrument for …

Neighborliness: A Call To Racial And Socioeconomic Equity In Charlotte, North Carolina, David Daniel Docusen

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus is challenged by an expert in religious law to identify the most important commandment. He replies that loving God and neighbors is the most important of the over six hundred commandments. This research project investigates how healing can come to communities that have been racially and socioeconomically divided when a spirit of biblical neighborliness is present. The ubiquity of this call to neighborliness throughout Scripture highlights the importance of this topic, but special emphasis is given to Mark 12:28-34 and Isaiah 58:1-14 in order to focus the effort and scope of this dissertation.

Chapter One surveys …

Longer-Run Effects Of Antipoverty Policies On Disadvantaged Neighborhoods, David Neumark, Brian J. Asquith, Brittany Bass

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the longer-run effects of minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and welfare on key economic indicators of economic self-sufficiency in disadvantaged neighborhoods. We find that the longer-run effects of the EITC are to increase employment and to reduce poverty and public assistance. We also find some evidence that higher welfare benefits had longer-run adverse effects, and quite robust evidence that tighter welfare time limits reduce poverty and public assistance in the longer run. The evidence on the long-run effects of the minimum wage on poverty and public assistance is not robust, with some evidence pointing to reductions …

Slogans Appropriate To The Legacy Of Martin Luther King Jr., Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

For printing signs, banners, posters, tee shirts, and bumper stickers (and for preaching sermons) that are appropriate to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please consider the following slogans: ABOLISH WAR, ABOLISH POVERTY, AMEND THE CONSTITUTION, SUPPORT AN ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS, JOBS FOR ALL, GUARANTEED INCOME FOR ALL, SUPPORT UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME, and GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR - Luke 4:14-19.

Poverty, Opportunity, And Well-Being In The United States, Nate D. Peach, Emily J. Mavrakis

Faculty Publications - College of Business

Economic opportunity varies dramatically across the United States. In this study the Opportunity to Flourish Index (OFI) is created to determine the level of opportunity United States cities afford those at the bottom of the income distribution. Indicators within the index measure disposable income, access to financial services, diet, educational attainment, unemployment, physical well-being, and family structure. The OFI’s relationship with standard measures of economic growth and economic mobility is also evaluated. The OFI is not correlated with measures of income and population growth, suggesting, that in the short-run growth and opportunity are not necessarily complementary. The OFI is strongly …

Data Literacy In Economic Development, Simon Halliday

Economics: Faculty Publications

In economic development and other economics electives, students regularly encounter economic measures of absolute and relative deprivation, from poverty measures like the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index to measures of distribution like the Gini index. By “doing economics,” students practice applying economic measurement to real-world data and develop more general data literacy. The author proposes a series of exercises starting with stylized 10-household economies, proceeding to nationally representative cross-sectional surveys using MS Excel or Google Spreadsheets, and culminating in students applying their acquired data literacy to a team project. The data sources are easily tailored to alternative household surveys in low- and middle-income …

Essays On Child Well-Being And The Social Safety Net, Cody N. Vaughn

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the role of two particular social safety net programs, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), on the well-being of children from disadvantaged households. While the impact of these programs on the adults and parents of the household have been studied extensively, less is known about their effect on children. This is true for both their immediate impact on child well-being and any long-run impacts on children who grow up under these programs. Given the demonstrated importance of child well-being on later life adult outcomes, …

Alleviating Poverty In Sub-Saharan Africa, Owen Dubeck

CMC Senior Theses

While most of the world has been able to dramatically reduce extreme poverty rates, Sub-Saharan Africa has failed to do so and is the only region in the world with more people living in extreme poverty than thirty years ago. This thesis will develop a policy framework for alleviating poverty by drawing from countries that are performing surprisingly well and poorly in the region. The thesis concludes with an analysis of whether education, health, or agricultural sectors should be receiving more or less funding based on expected rates of return and the feasibility of policy successes.

The Economy Of Modern Sindh: Opportunities Lost And Lessons For The Future, Ishrat Husain, Aijaz A. Qureshi, Nadeem Hussain

Faculty Research - Books

The Economy of Modern Sindh delves into the different aspects of Sindh’s economy—from geography, topography, climate, administrative history, and demographics, to the political landscape, education, health, labour force and employment, poverty and inequality, agriculture and water issues, infrastructure, industries, energy resources, and public finances—each is covered in a separate chapter. The book highlights the socioeconomic problems that have beset Sindh, arresting the province’s economic potential, and proposes a multi-pronged strategy to address these challenges. It offers an incisive and objective assessment of the various policies enacted and pursued by the Sindh government over the years. It also attempts to identify …

Early Childhood Development And The Replication Of Poverty, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

Antipoverty efforts must begin early because abundant evidence demonstrates that experiences during the first five years of life lay a foundation for future learning and the acquisition of skills. Public investments can help foster early childhood development, but these efforts must begin early and must involve both parents and children. This chapter describes the patterns of convergence and divergence in state approaches to supporting early childhood development. For the prenatal period until age three, the federal government is the primary source of funds, and there is fairly limited variation in how this money is spent across the states. For the …

Objetivos De Desarrollo Del Milenio: Éxito Y Desarrollo En El Departamento De Santander, 2000-2015, Juan Sebastián Hoyos García, Brayan Eduardo Mogollón Moncada

Negocios y Relaciones Internacionales

Los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio (ODM) son ocho específicos que los Estados Miembros de las Naciones Unidas se comprometieron a cumplir para el año 2015. El presente trabajo de investigación analiza de qué manera con los ODM, el departamento de Santander pudo posicionarse como un caso de éxito a nivel nacional en términos de ejecución y alcance en un período de tiempo entre el 2000-2015. Para ello se aplicó una metodología mixta que incluye el análisis de estadísticas oficiales y el análisis documental. Evidenciando los factores que le permitieron a este departamento posicionarse como sobresaliente en el cumplimiento de …