Poverty Research & Policy

Latest Episodes:

Sarah Halpern-Meekin on "Social Poverty" Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

This episode features Professor Sarah Halpern-Meekin, who discusses work from her 2019 book, Social Poverty. Halpern-Meekin is a sociologist at UW-Madison's School of Human Ecology and La Follette School of Public Affairs.

Peter Blair on Occupational Licenses and What They Signal in the Job Market Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Peter Blair of Harvard University talks about a paper called "Job Market Signaling through Occupational Licensing" he wrote with Bobby Chung that looks at how licenses people need for jobs contribute to differences in pay and if the story is different depending on someone's race or gender. He also talks about culture challenges in the economics profession, mentoring, and how growing up in the Bahamas influenced some of his goals as an economist.

Jessica Calarco on Parents and the Power of Privilege in Schools Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

We've all heard stories about the rise in helicopter parenting—parents who do their kids' homework, drop off things at school for them that they've forgotten, and intervene to smooth the path for their children. It's become so common that many schools now have rules against this kind of parental behavior. But our guest for this episode, sociologist Jessica Calarco of Indiana University, says that for many privileged parents and families, these rules just don't seem to apply. She set out to find out why and tells us about it in this podcast episode.

Angela Guarin: Do Low-Income Noncustodial Fathers "Trade" Earlier Families for New Ones? Feb 12, 2020

Show notes

For this episode, we hear from Angela Guarin about a paper she wrote with Lonnie Berger, Maria Cancian, and Dan Meyer that tries to understand how low-income noncustodial fathers who have children in more than one household make decisions when it comes to supporting their children. Guarin is a postdoctoral fellow at Los Andes University in Colombia and was a graduate research fellow at the Institute for Research on Poverty while earning her Ph.D. in social welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lars Højsgaard Andersen on the Consequences of Lowering Welfare Benefits for Migrants and Their Families Jan 06, 2020

Show notes

For this episode, we hear from Lars Højsgaard Andersen of Denmark's Rockwool Foundation about a policy change in Denmark that aimed to increase employment among refugees to the country by reducing public benefits. The policy change brought a number of consequences — some intended, some not — that could inform similar policies being implemented in other countries.

Michael Strain: The American Dream Isn't Dead Nov 13, 2019

Show notes

This episode features Michael Strain, the Economic Policy Director at the American Enterprise Institute, who gave a talk at IRP earlier this year titled "The American Dream isn't Dead." It's a provocative title and Strain says that this line of work is growing out of concerns he has about the narrative around the American Dream.

Leslie Hodges on Unemployment Insurance and Material Hardships Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we hear from IRP postdoctoral scholar Leslie Hodges about the Unemployment Insurance program and how the program might mitigate economic distress, including poverty and material hardships, when someone loses a job.

Brian Thiede on the Rural Economy and Barriers to Work in Rural America Sep 30, 2019

Show notes

There has been renewed interest in issues facing the U.S. rural economy in recent years. In this episode, Penn State sociologist and demographer Brian Thiede breaks down some of the key changes that have taken place in the rural labor market and discusses potential policy responses to barriers to work faced by rural Americans.

Aaron Sojourner and Matt Wiswall on the Value of Investments in Quality Child Care Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we hear from economists Aaron Sojourner and Matt Wiswall about the value of investments in quality child care and how we can think about tradeoffs when it comes to child care subsidies and related policies.

Damon Jones on Whether a Modest Basic Income Might Lead People to Work Less Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

The idea of a universal basic income has been gaining traction in recent years, but we don't have much evidence about what a large-scale universal basic income policy would do. In this episode, University of Chicago economist Damon Jones talks about the idea of a universal basic income and discusses a study he did with Ioana Marinescu that looked at the Alaska Permanent Fund to better understand the labor market effects of universal and permanent cash payments.

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