Social Welfare Commons^™

Bootstrap Blues, Hannah M. Frantz

SURGE

Meet David*. In mid-January, he came to the small town Iowa elementary school where I work. David has attended more schools in the two years since he started school than I have in my lifetime. In fact, the school he just moved from only has four days of attendance listed on his record. David moves so often because he’s homeless. His situation is not what we may stereotypically think of as “homeless”—you wouldn’t see him on the streets or even in soup kitchens. Instead, David stays with his mother, and they couch surf from one home to another from week …

Use Of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program Benefits By Unemployment Insurance Applicants In Michigan During The Great Recession, Christopher J. O'Leary, Kenneth J. Kline

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

During the Great Recession, both the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the federal-state unemployment insurance (UI) program experienced dramatic increases in participation. Using Michigan program administrative data on all SNAP (2006–2011) recipients and all UI (2001–2010) applicants, we examine SNAP use before and after UI application. Both past and future receipts of SNAP are highly negatively correlated with meeting UI income and job separation eligibility requirements. Unemployment insurance applicants with insufficient wage credits or job separations because of quitting or employer discharge are much more likely to have received SNAP in the past. Furthermore, such UI applicants are also …

U.S. Employment Outlook For 2014: Can The U.S. Economy Stand On Its Own?, Randall W. Eberts

Periodical Articles

No abstract provided.

Extended Preferences And Interpersonal Comparisons: A New Account, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Youth Unemployment Crisis Facing Welfare Regimes: How States Develop New Social Policy, Andrew C. Campbell

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Consumption, Risk And Prioritarianism, Matthew D. Adler, Nicolas Treich

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper, we study consumption decisions under risk assuming a prioritarian social welfare function, namely a concave transformation of individual utility functions. Under standard assumptions, there is always more current consumption under ex ante prioritarianism than under utilitarianism. Thus, a concern for equity (in the ex ante prioritarian sense) means less concern for the risky future. In contrast, there is usually less current consumption under ex post prioritarianism than under utilitarianism. We discuss the robustness of these results to learning, and to other forms of prioritarian social welfare functions.

The Social Value Of Mortality Risk Reduction: Vsl Vs. The Social Welfare Function Approach, Matthew D. Adler, James K. Hammitt, Nicolas Treich

Faculty Scholarship

We examine how different welfarist frameworks evaluate the social value of mortality risk reduction. These frameworks include classical, distributively unweighted cost–benefit analysis—i.e., the “value per statistical life” (VSL) approach—and various social welfare functions (SWFs). The SWFs are either utilitarian or prioritarian, applied to policy choice under risk in either an “ex post” or “ex ante” manner. We examine the conditions on individual utility and on the SWF under which these frameworks display sensitivity to wealth and to baseline risk. Moreover, we discuss whether these frameworks satisfy related properties that have received some attention in the literature, namely equal value of …

The Plight Of Kenyan Domestic Workers In Gulf Countries, Caroline Muthoni Gikuru

Master's Theses

Kenya’s economy remains the regional leader within the East African Community (EAC) and among East African countries at large. However, political instability such as the 2007 post-election violence and the region’s social and political instability trickling into Kenya, have negatively affected the country’s economic growth. To bridge the economic gap, Kenyan women are seeking employment in the domestic service sector in the Gulf Countries, with Saudi Arabia being the most popular destination. At their destination countries, some domestic workers are subjected to various forms of abuse by their employers, leaving the worker without recourse due to the lack of legal …

The Primacy Of Context: An Exploration Into The Causes Of Food Insecurity In Kitere, Kenya., William O. Aludo

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this study was to explore the specific reasons why households in Kitere village, Kenya experience persistent food insecurity every year while the region enjoys the advantage of two planting/harvest seasons in a year. Kitere village lies within the lakeside region of Nyanza Province in Kenya, generally considered to be one of the more agriculturally productive parts of the country. The Participatory Rural Appraisal method was employed to gather qualitative data on the causes of food insecurity in Kitere village. The data sources were focus groups and a self-administered, one-time survey of random and non-random samples of key …

Livelihood Security Among Refugees In Uganda: Opportunities, Obstacles, And Physical Security Implications, Karen J. Norris

Student Publications

This research project was designed to investigate the challenges refugees face in securing a livelihood, to understand the extent to which the United Nations, the government of Uganda, and various aid groups are able to assist refugees in achieving self-reliance, and the capacity that refugees have to empower themselves. It also endeavors to expose any disparities between nationality groups, and the impact of these differences. Furthermore, this project aims to explore the impact of refugee livelihood security on regional physical security and community stability.

The study found that despite international and national policies, and efforts by both non-governmental organizations and …

Does Retirement Induced Through Social Security Pension Eligibility Influence Subjective Well-Being? A Cross-Country Comparison, Arie Kapteyn, Jinkook Lee, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

How does retirement influence subjective well-being? Some studies suggest retirement does not affect subjective well-being or may improve it. Others suggest it adversely affects it. This paper aims at advancing our understanding of the effect of retirement on subjective well-being by (1) using longitudinal data to tease out the retirement effect from age and cohort differences; (2) using instrumental variables to address potential reverse causation of subjective well-being on retirement decisions; and (3) conducting cross-country analyses, exploiting differences in eligibility ages for retirement benefits across countries and within countries. We use panel data from the US Health and Retirement Study …

A Case Study Of Rural Finance Self-Help Groups In Uganda And Their Impact On Poverty Alleviation And Development, Rebecca Flynn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research was to assess the impact of financial Self-Help Groups (SHGs)on poverty alleviation and development in rural areasof Uganda and evaluate their successes, limitations, and potential for sustainability.An extensive literature review ofpovertyin Uganda, development theories and development in Uganda,andrural finance self-help group methodology and theorieswas conducted in order to provide a broader context for the research.

The participants in the research were members of SHGs in Central Uganda under the Self-Help Group Approach Uganda (SHGAU) organization andemployees of SHGAU.The primary methods were personal interviews and focus groups. Thesegave the researcher insight into the goals and structure …

Global And Local Youth Unemployment: Dislocation And Pathways, Ramon Borges-Mendez, Lillian Denhardt, Michelle Collett

New England Journal of Public Policy

The impact of economic recessions is not felt uniformly across demographic groups, and the detrimental effects of the one-time dislocations can significantly shift the long-term prospects of human development for many years to come. The current recession has been hard on young people in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24, especially minorities (Latino or African American). Labor force participation rates have dropped dramatically and unemployment has reached as high as 30% in some states. Long spells of unemployment and adverse conditions for labor market incorporation further increase the likelihood of other poor life outcomes, such as …

Milking The System: Do Poor People Deserve Fresh Food?, Melanie M. Meisenheimer

SURGE

Poor Americans are all lazy, selfish people who must first prove their worth as human beings if they want to be able to feed their children.

It sounds harsh, stereotypical, and judgmental when you put it like that, and few people would feel comfortable saying that exact phrase. However, it’s a perception of poverty in America that I’ve found still has a strong grip on our way of thinking. [excerpt]

Managing Social Security Disability & Other Public Benefits: Development Of A Guide For Consumers And Providers, Stephanie L. Derochers

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

One in five Americans has a disability, making it the largest minority group in the U.S. (Soffer, McDonald, & Blanck, 2010). In 2011, 13.4 million working-aged adults received a disability cash benefit from the Social Security Administration (Kregel, 2012).

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the federal agency responsible for managing, executing and overseeing retirement, survivor, old-age and disability benefits. There are over 1,500 Social Security offices and over 65,000 employees nationwide (SSA, 2013). SSA manages at least five disability benefit programs: Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Disabled Widow(er) Benefit (DWB), Childhood Disability Benefit (CDB), though …

Fostering The Orphaned And Vulnerable Child: Exploring Identity Economics In Relation To Orphaned And Vulnerable Children In The Eastern Cape And Cape Town, South Africa, Khaliyah Yasmeen Washington

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

According to UNICEF, 3.7 million children are orphaned in South Africa (2010). Parliament enacted the Children’s Act on April 1, 2010 to grant and protect the rights orphaned or vulnerable children (OVC). The Children’s Act aims to promote the well being of children, prevent abuse or neglect, and increase options for the care of children found to be in need or care and protection (Jamieson, Mahery, and Scott 2011). Children not receiving care and protection from a parent or guardian are placed in one of three options of alternative care. One being child and youth care centers (CYCC); also known …

Designing Affordable Housing For Adaptability: Principles, Practices, & Application, Micaela R. Danko

Pitzer Senior Theses

While environmental and economic sustainability have been driving factors in the movement towards a more resilient built environment, social sustainability is a factor that has received significantly less attention over the years. Federal support for low-income housing has fallen drastically, and the deficit of available, adequate, affordable homes continues to grow. In this thesis, I explore one way that architects can design affordable housing that is intrinsically sustainable. In the past, subsidized low-income housing has been built as if to provide a short-term solution—as if poverty and lack of affordable housing is a short-term problem. However, I argue that adaptable …

U.S. Employment Outlook For 2013, Randall W. Eberts

Periodical Articles

No abstract provided.

The Pigou-Dalton Principle And The Structure Of Distributive Justice, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

The Pigou-Dalton (PD) principle recommends a non-leaky, non-rank-switching transfer of goods from someone with more goods to someone with less. This Article defends the PD principle as an aspect of distributive justice --- enabling the comparison of two distributions, neither completely equal, as more or less just. It shows how the PD principle flows from a particular view, adumbrated by Thomas Nagel, about the grounding of distributive justice in individuals' "claims." And it criticizes two competing frameworks for thinking about justice that less clearly support the principle: the veil-of-ignorance framework, and Larry Temkin's proposal that fairer distributions are those concerning …

A Healthier Bottom Line: Distilling Best Practices In Corporate Wellness, Mark Auriemma, Cfa, Angela Cassidy, Kelly Dougherty, Despina Garalis, Pharmd, Rph, Judith Pelletier, Jennifer Springer

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR) collaborated with a team from the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) from the University of Massachusetts Boston to explore ways to control health care costs. One strategy being implemented by employers to control health care costs is through “wellness programs,” employer-sponsored efforts to improve the health of employees. Members of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR) and other large employers have had success in reducing their health care costs through the implementation of corporate wellness initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to define what is working in private sector wellness programs to determine whether there is …

The Minimum Wage, Decent Wages, And Time Sovereignty In The European Union, Kathleen A. Ragon

Student Publications

The minimum wage is a legally mandated relationship between money and time. Traditionally, studies of the minimum wage have focused on the money side of this relationship (e.g. how much do minimum wage workers earn) while ignoring its temporal aspects (e.g. how long someone has to work to receive a particular income). This is a significant oversight because it overlooks the temporal investments that minimum wage workers must make in order to achieve a specific sum of money (e.g. there is a significant temporal difference if a minimum wage worker can achieve an income above a poverty threshold by working …

Water Governance In Bolivia: Policy Options For Pro-Poor Infrastructure Reform, Daniel M. Maxwell

CMC Senior Theses

As the case with most countries across Latin America, unprecedented migration to urban areas has strained city infrastructure systems. More particularly, the region faces a pressing crisis of water security, where rapid urbanization has outpaced water sector development. This thesis addresses the water infrastructure reform in El Alto and La Paz, Bolivia, focusing on strategies to better promote water access for the peri-urban poor. The research investigates the level of progressivity of water service expansion and pricing regimes: in other words, does the present model of water distribution positively improve the lives of the poorest groups? By investigating these social …

2013 Conference Report: The Social Practice Of Human Rights, Mark Ensalaco

Human Rights Program Documents

Universities have new importance in the global human rights movement.

This was the resounding message the University of Dayton heard at its global conference on human rights advocacy in October 2013. The human rights movement is experiencing dramatic changes. Dynamic new NGOs in the global South are resetting the human rights agenda. Popular movements inspired by human rights ideals are arising around the world to demand justice. New information technologies are creating the possibility of real global solidarity. The movement must adapt. Human rights organizations must imagine new strategies to address poverty and other root causes of human rights violations. …

2013 Conference Brochure: Be A Part Of The Human Rights Movement's New Frontier, University Of Dayton Human Rights Center

Human Rights Program Documents

Why must we explore the social practice of human rights?

In the 65 years since the U.N.’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the human rights community has become a standard-bearer of normative behavior, influencing development and humanitarian organizations, multinational corporations and philanthropists. Though the movement is viewed as honorable and admirable, the certainty of its mission can inhibit introspection; a natural tendency is to prioritize rather than challenge prevailing assumptions.

Are the good intentions of human rights advocates enough? No. Research and dialogue can help propel the human rights community forward by facilitating introspection to improve both advocacy and action: …

How Many Barack Obamas Does It Take: An Analysis Of The Effect Of Charter Schools On Real Estate And Crime, Aananditaa Kakkar

CMC Senior Theses

This study looks at the relationship between charter school presence and neighborhood quality in Los Angeles. Using data from the Los Angeles Department of Education, Zillow Real Estate, and the Los Angeles Sheriff, this paper attempts to find whether changes in charter presence influence the price of surrounding real estate or the occurrence of serious and petty crimes. The results find that charter schools tend to be associated with a decrease in home sale prices. The results on crime imply that crime increases upon the opening of charter schools, however they are statistically insignificant.

The National Elder Economic Security Standard Index, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

The Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index) is a new tool for use by policy makers, older adults, family caregivers, service providers, aging advocates, and the public at large. Developed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), the Elder Index is a measure of income that older adults require to maintain their independence in the community and meet their daily costs of living, including affordable and appropriate housing and health care. The development and use of the Elder Index promotes a measure of income that respects the autonomy goals of …

Supporting Healthy Lives And Vibrant Places: Learning About And Living The Collaborative Leadership Model, Lisa Deangelis, Maureen A. Scully, Andrea Wight

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 31 fellows in the 2012 UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) worked with community partners to investigate the theme, “Supporting Healthy Lives and Vibrant Places.” They worked in peer self-managed teams, in order to learn collaborative leadership skills first-hand, while engaging with stakeholders and issues where collaboration makes a difference. Their team projects addressed: best practices in corporate wellness initiatives, outreach to support health care access for homeless people, ways to grow awareness of the wide need for affordable housing, ideas for arts-based local economic development, broader funding sources to support innovative research on poverty, and ways to continue …

From Financing Social Insurance To Insuring Financial Markets: The Socialisation Of Risk And The Privatisation Of Profit In An Age Of Irresponsibility, Simon Lee, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

Commentaries on the financial meltdown that began with Lehman Brothers’ collapse in September 2008 trace its origins to greedy bankers exploiting lax regulatory practices to take excessive risks through exotic and arcane financial instruments. While not wishing to demur from this analysis this chapter takes issue with the frequent failure to acknowledge that this has come about as a consequence of the (mis)application of state power over the past 50 years (see Helleiner 1994). Starting with the tacit support for the development of the Euromarkets in the 1960s and culminating with the responses to the turmoil of 2008-2010 the chapter …

Summary Report: The State Of Black Entrepreneurship In The United States: Education, Labor Activity, And Access To Capital, Rebecca Tekula, Mary Tracy

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.