Income Distribution Commons^™

Searching For Social Capital In U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs, Nancy C. Jurik, Gray Cavender, Julie Cozogill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper focuses on the claims and efforts of U.S. microenterprise development programs (MDPs) to build social capital among poor and low income entrepreneurs. MDPs offer business training and lending services to individuals operating very small businesses (with five or fewer employees and less than $20,000 in start-up capital). Advocates suggest that MDPs help promote economic development by building social capital defined as networks among small entrepreneurs and between entrepreneurs and their larger community. We begin our paper with a short review of the varied definitions and claims about the role of social capital in promoting civic and economic empowerment. …

The Effects Of Maternal Welfare Receipt On Children’S Development, Nikolay O. Doskov

Gettysburg Economic Review

Over the past 25 years, welfare and other public policies for families living below the poverty line have developed a primary objective of promoting parents’ self-sufficiency. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), passed in 1996, was a milestone in this effort, limiting the number of years that families can receive federal cash welfare assistance and requiring most of them to participate in work-related activities to be eligible for such assistance. This new emphasis on work was one of the main reasons for the dramatic decline in welfare dependency during the late 1990s. The new legislation, however, also …

Poverty And Fertility In The American South, Leonard M. Lopoo

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This project first reports descriptive evidence of the characteristics of mothers in the American South and compares them to mothers in other regions of the country. Women in the South (and West) tend to have their children at younger ages than those in the Midwest and Northeast. Mothers in the South (and West) also have much lower levels of education and are more likely to be African American or Hispanic compared to women in the Midwest and Northeast. Next, this paper attempts to link the characteristics of the mothers in the American South to the high rates of poverty there. …

Poverty, Race And The Contexts Of Achievement: Examining Educational Experiences Of Children In The American South, Maryah Stella Fram, Julie Miller-Cribbs, Lee Van Horn

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper reports findings of a study examining child-, classroom-, and school-level factors that effect academic achievement among public school children in the South. Using ECLS-K data, we compare and contrast the learning environments in high/low minority and high/low poverty schools. A sizeable minority of Southern children attend schools that are race and/or class segregated; on multiple dimensions these schools are less desirable than are schools attended by more privileged children, and children attending these schools have lower levels of academic achievement. Results from 3-level random intercepts models show that a range of child and family factors, as well as …

Does Regional Variation In Multiple Measures Of Health Status Differ Across Income Levels?, Janet M. Bronstein, Shailender Swaminathan, Joshua Klapow

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This study examines whether regional variations in health status measures are consistent across the income gradient, or whether they are more pronounced at the lowest income levels. We use data from the Community Tracking Survey, a large randomized telephone survey of residents in 60 U.S. communities. Controlling for individual risk factors and county level income inequality, lowest income individuals have poorer scores on counts of chronic diseases, global health ratings, and the physical and mental components of the SF-12. Residents of the South have poorer scores on chronic disease counts, global health and physical health than residents of the Northeast, …

Poverty And Macroeconomic Performance Across Space, Race, And Family Structure, Craig Gundersen, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Understanding the link between poverty and economic growth is of long-standing interest, but heretofore it has not received much attention within the context of the dramatic changes in recent business-cycle conditions and social policies. In this paper we use state-level panel data from the 1981–2000 waves of the Current Population Survey to examine the impacts of the macroeconomy and welfare reform on family poverty. We estimate models of before-tax and after-tax poverty rates and squared poverty gaps for all families, by family structure, and by race. Our results indicate that a strong macroeconomy at both the state and national levels …

Obesity And The Development Of Complications Across The Life Span: Is There A Relationship Between Obesity And Poverty, Mildred D. Fennal

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between the development of obesity in children ages five to ten years, and poverty (the socio-economic status of the family). Because of the associated complications of obesity such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension, this research aimed to determine if obesity, a precursor of these diseases, was related to poverty.

The rate of the development of hypertension and diabetes in children and young adults has been steadily increasing over the past ten years (Hines, Fishman, Green, 1999). Therefore, there is an urgent need for continued investigation exploring the multiple …

Helping Working Families: The Earned Income Tax Credit, Saul D. Hoffman, Laurence S. Seidman

Upjohn Press

Hoffman and Seidman offer a thorough assessment of the EITC in which they analyze, evaluate, summarize, and critique the state of the program. They find that, overall, the EITC works well, and that it has earned its political popularity. Yet they also uncover several problem areas that they address with specific recommendations based on their analysis.

Trends. The Attack On Mbeki: Praising Through Damning, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the controversial contention by President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa that poverty and lack of health infrastructures are the causes of AIDS and HIV in Africa instead of limiting his analysis to the biological line of virus inducing disease.

Rising Wage Inequality In Urban Labor Markets, Thomas Hyclak

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Rising Wage Inequality: The 1980s Experience In Urban Labor Markets, Thomas Hyclak

Upjohn Press

Hyclak analyzes information not utilized in previous studies of wage inequality. Whereas researchers previously relied on data derived from the national labor market, Hyclak draws on data from the Area Wage Surveys (AWS), which allows him to focus on changes in the wage structure in a sample of 20 local labor markets for the period of 1974 to 1991. This source also allows him to examine changes in the structure of wages paid for some 40 different jobs found in four different occupational groups. In addition, Hyclak is able to concentrate on jobs and the skills required as the primary …

Changes In Income Inequality Within U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Janice Fanning Madden

Upjohn Press

In studying MSA data that link the characteristics of metropolitan economies to significant changes in income inequality, Madden is able to study changes in poverty rates, household income inequality, and wage inequality within 182 of the largest MSAs and to identify what she says are the three factors most likely to influence changes in income inequality in metropolitan areas.

Structural Adjustment, Stabilization Policies And The Poor In Egypt, Karima Korayem

Faculty Books

Structural adjustment and stabilization agreements between Egypt and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were signed in 1991. The two agreements are referred to as the economic reform and structural adjustment program (ERSAP). To examine the impact of ERSAP on Egypt's poor , one has to define, first, who are the poor and what is their relative share in the population. The negative impact of ERSAP on the society as a whole will be less harmful if absolute and relative poverty are small in Egypt. ERSAP affects the poor through three channels: prices, incomes, and the provision of …

Poverty And Inequality: The Political Economy Of Redistribution, Jon Neill Editor

Upjohn Press

Despite the nation's significant and prolonged economic growth during the 1990s, the portion of aggregate income going to the poorest 20 percent of the population declined, while that of the richest 20 percent grew. The contributors to this volume examine the extent and reasons behind this distribution.

The Earned Income Tax Credit: Antipoverty Effectiveness And Labor Market Effects, Saul D. Hoffman, Laurence S. Seidman

Upjohn Press

The authors begin with a detailed assessment then perform empirical analyses to predict the outcomes of changes to the structure of the program.

Basic Needs, Inflation, And The Poor Of Egypt, 1970-1980, Myrette Ahmed El Sokkari

Faculty Books

The aim of the study is to see how the poor have fared over the 1970's: to evaluate whether their welfare improved or worsened. The cost of the private consumption goods will be estimated over the period of 1970-1982 using detailed information on the cost of food, clothing, and shelter for both urban and rural areas.

Coping With Poverty In A Cairo Community, Andrea B. Rugh

Faculty Books

The monograph, a sociological study by a Western social scientist working in Egypt, on a popular quarter of Cairo. The study of the traditional quarters of the great cities of the Middle East has been a very much neglected area of research; in this monograph, bringing painstaking reseach and impressive sociological insight to bear, is our contribution towards folling the gap.