The lowest rung
Self-Affirmation Among the Poor: Cognitive and Behavioral Implications
Crystal Hall, Jiaying Zhao & Eldar Shafir
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The poor are universally stigmatized. The stigma of poverty includes being perceived as incompetent and feeling shunned and disrespected. It can lead to cognitive distancing, diminish cognitive performance, and cause the poor to forego beneficial programs. In the present research, we examined how self-affirmation can mitigate the stigma of poverty through randomized field experiments involving low-income individuals at an inner-city soup kitchen. Because of low literacy levels, we used an oral rather than written affirmation procedure, in which participants verbally described a personal experience that made them feel successful or proud. Compared with nonaffirmed participants, affirmed individuals exhibited better executive control, higher fluid intelligence, and a greater willingness to avail themselves of benefits programs. The effects were not driven by elevated positive mood, and the same intervention did not affect the performance of wealthy participants. The findings suggest that self-affirmation can improve the cognitive performance and decisions of the poor, and it may have important policy implications.
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Do Housing Choice Voucher Holders Live Near Good Schools?
Keren Mertens Horn, Ingrid Gould Ellen & Amy Ellen Schwartz
Journal of Housing Economics, March 2014, Pages 28–40
Abstract:
The Housing Choice Voucher program was created, in part, to help low income households reach a broader range of neighborhoods and schools. Rather than concentrating low income households in designated developments, vouchers allow families to choose their housing units and neighborhoods. In this project we explore whether low income households use the flexibility provided by vouchers to reach neighborhoods with high performing schools. Unlike previous experimental work, which has focused on a small sample of voucher holders constrained to live in low-poverty neighborhoods, we look at the voucher population as a whole and explore the broad range of neighborhoods in which they live. Relying on internal data from HUD on the location of assisted households, we link each voucher holder in the country to the closest elementary school within their school district. We compare the characteristics of the schools that voucher holders are likely to attend to the characteristics of those accessible to other households receiving place based housing subsidies, other similar unsubsidized households and fair market rent units within the same state and metropolitan area. These comparisons provide us with a portrait of the schools that children might have attended absent HUD assistance. In comparison to other poor households in the same metropolitan areas, we find that the schools near voucher holders have lower performing students than the schools near other poor households without a housing subsidy. We probe this surprising finding by exploring whether differences between the demographic characteristics of voucher holders and other poor households explain the differences in the characteristics of nearby schools, and whether school characteristics vary with length of time in the voucher program. We also examine variation across metropolitan areas in the relative quality of schools near to voucher holders and whether this variation is explained by economic, socio-demographic or policy differences across cities.
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Poverty and Materialism: A Look at Impoversihed Versus Affluent Children
Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Ronald Hill & Deborah Roedder John
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Concerns about materialism have been elevated to a public policy issue, with consumer activists and social scientists calling for restrictions on marketing to children. A recent UNICEF report on welfare of children suggests that those from low-income families may be particularly vulnerable (www.unicef.org.uk). The current research provides a first glimpse into consumer values of impoverished children. Personal interviews conducted with 177 youngsters from impoverished and affluent families reveal differences in materialistic values. Although younger children (ages 8–10) from poor families exhibit similar levels of materialism as their more affluent peers, once they reach adolescence (ages 11–13) and beyond (ages 16–17), impoverished youngsters are more materialistic than their wealthier counterparts. Further analysis shows this difference is associated with lower self-esteem among impoverished teens. Implications of these findings are discussed, including public policy solutions aimed at reducing low-income children's vulnerability to developing materialistic values that undermine their well-being.
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How Much International Variation in Child Height Can Sanitation Explain?
Dean Spears
Princeton Working Paper, January 2014
Abstract:
Physical height is an important economic variable reflecting health and human capital. Puzzlingly, however, differences in average height across developing countries are not well explained by differences in wealth. In particular, children in India are shorter, on average, than children in Africa who are poorer, on average, a paradox called "the Asian enigma" which has received much attention from economists. This paper provides the first documentation of a quantitatively important gradient between child height and sanitation that can statistically explain a large fraction of international height differences. This association between sanitation and human capital is robustly stable, even after accounting for other heterogeneity, such as in GDP. I apply three complementary empirical strategies to identify the association between sanitation and child height: country-level regressions across 140 country-years in 65 developing countries; within-country analysis of differences over time within Indian districts; and econometric decomposition of the India-Africa height difference in child-level data. Open defecation, which is exceptionally widespread in India, can account for much or all of the excess stunting in India.
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The Earned Income Tax Credit and Food Consumption Patterns
Leslie McGranahan & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
Federal Reserve Working Paper, November 2013
Abstract:
The Earned Income Tax Credit is unique among social programs in that benefits are not paid out evenly across the calendar year. We exploit this feature of the EITC to investigate how the credit influences the food expenditure patterns of eligible households. We find that eligible households spend relatively more on healthy items including fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, and dairy products during the months when most refunds are paid.
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Exhaustion Of Food Budgets At Month’s End And Hospital Admissions For Hypoglycemia
Hilary Seligman et al.
Health Affairs, January 2014, Pages 116-123
Abstract:
One in seven US households cannot reliably afford food. Food budgets are more frequently exhausted at the end of a month than at other points in time. We postulated that this monthly pattern influenced health outcomes, such as risk for hypoglycemia among people with diabetes. Using administrative data on inpatient admissions in California for 2000–08, we found that admissions for hypoglycemia were more common in the low-income than the high-income population (270 versus 200 admissions per 100,000). Risk for hypoglycemia admission increased 27 percent in the last week of the month compared to the first week in the low-income population, but we observed no similar temporal variation in the high-income population. These findings suggest that exhaustion of food budgets might be an important driver of health inequities. Policy solutions to improve stable access to nutrition in low-income populations and raise awareness of the health risks of food insecurity might be warranted.
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The Employment Effect of Terminating Disability Benefits
Timothy Moore
NBER Working Paper, January 2014
Abstract:
While time out of work normally decreases subsequent employment, Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) may improve the health of disabled individuals and increase their ability to work. In this paper, I examine the employment of individuals who lost DI eligibility after the 1996 removal of drug and alcohol addictions as qualifying conditions. Approximately one-fifth started earning at levels that would have disqualified them for DI, an employment response that is large relative to their work histories. This response is largest for those who had received DI for 2.5-3 years, when it is 50% larger than for those who had received DI for less than one year and 30% larger than for those who had received DI for six years. A similar relationship between time on DI and the employment response is found among those whose primary disability was an addiction, mental disorder, or musculoskeletal condition, but not those with chronic conditions like heart or liver disease. The results suggest that a period of public assistance can maximize the employment of some disabled individuals.
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The Moral Obligations of Some Debts
Francesca Polletta & Zaibu Tufail
Sociological Forum, forthcoming
Abstract:
If given the opportunity to reduce your debt, albeit at some financial risk, would you take it? Interviews and observations in two debt settlement firms show that debt settlement clients tend not to calculate financial risks in deciding which debts to try to settle. Rather, they treat their relationship with their creditor as a reciprocal and ongoing one. If the service provided by their creditor was inadequate, clients feel justified in trying to settle their debt. Otherwise, they believe that they must pay back the debt in full. In line with recent work in economic sociology, we show that economic transactors are bound by the moral requirements of the relationship they are in. But debt settlement clients invent those relationships in at least two ways: turning a debt to an impersonal agency into a relationship with a person, and turning a relationship of inequality into one of equality. Clients may preserve some sense of autonomy in a disempowering relationship by conceptualizing their relationship with their creditor as one between equals. But there is a cost: As a result of the relational schemas on which they operate, they often refuse to try to settle debts that might be settled without lasting financial repercussions.
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Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance in the Great Recession
Andreas Mueller, Jesse Rothstein & Till von Wachter
NBER Working Paper, November 2013
Abstract:
Disability insurance (DI) applications and awards are countercyclical. One potential explanation is that unemployed individuals who exhaust their Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits use DI as a form of extended benefits. We exploit the haphazard pattern of UI benefit extensions in the Great Recession to identify the effect of UI exhaustion on DI application, using both aggregate data at the state-month and state-week levels and microdata on unemployed individuals in the Current Population Survey. We find no indication that expiration of UI benefits causes DI applications. Our estimates are sufficiently precise to rule out effects of meaningful magnitude.
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Low-Income Women’s Employment Experiences and Their Financial, Personal, and Family Well-Being
Rebekah Levine Coley & Caitlin McPherran Lombardi
Journal of Family Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Low-income women’s rates of employment have grown dramatically in recent years, yet the stability and quality of their employment remain low. Using panel data from the Three-City Study following 1,586 low-income African American, Latina, and European American women, this study assessed associations between women’s employment quality (wages; receipt of health insurance) and stability (work consistency; job transitions) and their financial, personal, and family well-being. Hierarchical linear models assessing within-person effects found that increases in wages were associated with improved financial well-being and physical health. Average wages over time similarly were associated with greater levels of income and financial stability as well as mental and physical health at the end of the study. In contrast, few significant associations emerged for receipt of health insurance or for the stability and consistency of women’s employment. Results have implications for programs and policies seeking to support disadvantaged women’s employment in order to improve family resources and functioning.
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The Great Recession and the Changing Geography of Food Stamp Receipt
Tim Slack & Candice Myers
Population Research and Policy Review, February 2014, Pages 63-79
Abstract:
The Great Recession has been distinctive in driving up unprecedented levels of participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This study extends the literature on the geography of SNAP receipt by (1) examining change in SNAP receipt across US counties during the Great Recession and (2) identifying how changes in other local characteristics were associated with this outcome. Our analysis draws on data from the US Department of Agriculture and other secondary sources. We use descriptive statistics, mapping, and weighted least squares spatial regression models to examine county-level variation (N = 2,485) in the percentage-point change in SNAP receipt between 2007 and 2009. Our findings reveal substantial local-level variation in the change in SNAP stamp use during the downturn. We find that counties with the greatest levels of change in SNAP participation tend to be regionally clustered. Our regression analysis shows that areas where the signature characteristics of the Great Recession were most pronounced (i.e., home foreclosures and unemployment) were precisely the places where SNAP use jumped most, not places with historically high levels of SNAP participation. Overall, this study demonstrates that change in SNAP receipt was geographically uneven during the Great Recession, and that local and regional configurations matter in shaping this variation. These results hold a range of implications for public policy, including opportunities for regionally targeted outreach and investment in SNAP and the use of the program as a responsive form of local stimulus during periods of economic crisis.
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Colleen Heflin & Peter Mueser
University of Missouri Working Paper, December 2013
Abstract:
Although many programs redistribute resources in the U.S., two program were central in providing a safety net for those facing hardship during the Great Recession: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which grew to 47.7 million people in January 2013 – or 15.1 percent of all Americans – and the Unemployment Insurance Program (UI), which more than doubled with the onset of the recession, reaching a seasonally adjusted maximum of 6.5 million recipients in June 2009. We examine state administrative data from Florida for SNAP and UI from late 2005 through early 2010. We focus on two research questions: 1. In the face of caseload growth and compositional change in both programs, how has joint participation in UI among SNAP recipients changed? How much of the increase in joint participation is driven by changes in the characteristics of individuals participating in SNAP? How much is driven by the changing economic and policy conditions? 2. How has the role of UI changed for SNAP participants, and in particular how have patterns of combined usage evolved during this period? We find that the number of families relying on both SNAP and UI together ballooned with the Great Recession, and that the patterns changed as expected, with UI growing dramatically in relative importance. At the same time, only a minority of those swelling the ranks of SNAP obtained benefits from the UI program, suggesting that the current safety net has important limitations in times of serious economic distress.
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Waging War on Poverty: Historical Trends in Poverty Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure
Liana Fox et al.
NBER Working Paper, January 2014
Abstract:
Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the March Current Population Survey, we calculate historical poverty estimates based on the new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) from 1967 to 2012. During this period, poverty as officially measured has stagnated. However, the official poverty measure (OPM) does not account for the effect of near-cash transfers on the financial resources available to families, an important omission since such transfers have become an increasingly important part of government anti-poverty policy. Applying the SPM, which does count such transfers, we find that historical trends in poverty have been more favorable than the OPM suggests and that government policies have played an important and growing role in reducing poverty --- a role that is not evident when the OPM is used to assess poverty. We also find that government programs have played a particularly important role in alleviating child poverty and deep poverty, especially during economic downturns.
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Human Capital in the Inner City
Dionissi Aliprantis
Federal Reserve Working Paper, February 2013
Abstract:
Black males in the United States are exposed to tremendous violence at young ages: In the NLSY97 26 percent report seeing someone shot by age 12, and 43 percent by age 18. This paper studies how this exposure to violence and its associated social isolation affect education and labor market outcomes. I use Elijah Anderson's ethnographic research on the "code of the street" to guide the specification of a model of human capital accumulation that includes street capital, the skills and knowledge useful for providing personal security in neighborhoods where it is not provided by state institutions. The model is estimated assuming either selection on observables or dynamic selection with permanent unobserved heterogeneity. Counterfactuals from these estimated models indicate that exposure to violence has large effects, decreasing the high school graduation rate between 6.1 and 10.5 percentage points (20 and 35 percent of the high school dropout rate) and hours worked between 3.0 and 4.0 hours per week (0.15 and 0.19 σ).
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Megan Patton-López et al.
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, forthcoming
Objective: To examine the prevalence and identify correlates of food insecurity among students attending a rural university in Oregon.
Methods: Cross-sectional nonprobability survey of 354 students attending a midsize rural university in Oregon during May, 2011. The main outcome was food insecurity measured using the US Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module: 6-Item Short Form. Socioeconomic and demographic variables were included in multivariate logistic regression models.
Results: Over half of students (59%) were food insecure at some point during the previous year. Having fair/poor health (odds ratio [OR], 2.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07–4.63), being employed (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.04–2.88), and having an income < $15,000/y (OR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.07–4.63) were associated with food insecurity. In turn, good academic performance (grade point average of ≥ 3.1) was inversely associated with food insecurity.
Conclusions: Food insecurity seems to be a significant issue for college students. It is necessary to expand research on different campus settings and further strengthen support systems to increase access to nutritious foods for this population.
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Do In-Work Tax Credits Serve as a Safety Net?
Marianne Bitler, Hilary Hoynes & Elira Kuka
NBER Working Paper, January 2014
Abstract:
The cash and near cash safety net in the U.S. has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past fifteen years. Federal welfare reform has led to the “elimination of welfare as we know it” and several tax reforms have substantially increased the role of “in-work”' assistance. In 2010, we spent more than 5 dollars on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for every dollar spent on cash benefits through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), whereas in 1994 on the eve of federal welfare reform these programs were about equal in size. In this paper, we evaluate and test whether the EITC satisfies a defining feature of a safety net program — that it responds to economic need. In particular, we explore how EITC participation and expenditures change with the business cycle. The fact that the EITC requires earned income leads to a theoretical ambiguity in the cyclical responsiveness of the credit. We use administrative IRS data to examine the relationship between business cycles and the EITC program. Our empirical strategy relies on exploiting differences in the timing and severity of economic cycles across states. The results show that higher unemployment rates lead to higher EITC recipients and total dollar amounts of credits for married couples. On the other hand, the effect of business cycles on the EITC is insignificant for single individuals, whether measured by recipients or expenditures. In sum, our results show that the EITC serves as an automatic stabilizer for married couples with children but not for the majority of recipients — single parents with children. The patterns we identify are consistent with the predictions of static labor supply theory, and with expectations about how economic shocks are likely to affect one versus two-earner households.
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The Effects of Unemployment on Prenatal Care Use and Infant Health
Andrea Kutinova Menclova
Journal of Family and Economic Issues, December 2013, Pages 400-420
Abstract:
Do recessions improve birth outcomes? This study investigated the relationship between unemployment fluctuations, prenatal care utilization and infant health. Analyzing the US Natality Detail Files for the period 1989–1999 aggregated by county, year, and race, I found the overall effects of unemployment to be beneficial but concluded that at least some of the apparent benefits are attributable to the Medicaid “safety net.” In supplementary analyses stratified by socioeconomic status, Medicaid played the largest role among economically disadvantaged (single and less educated) women. Thus, unemployment seems to be good for at least some pregnancies — provided Medicaid steps in.
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Marian Jarlenski et al.
Medical Care, January 2014, Pages 10-19
Background: The “Unborn Child” (UC) option provides state Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs with a new strategy to extend prenatal coverage to low-income women who would otherwise have difficulty enrolling in or would be ineligible for Medicaid.
Objectives: To examine the association of the UC option with the probability of enrollment in Medicaid/CHIP during pregnancy and probability of receiving adequate prenatal care.
Research Design: We use pooled cross-sectional data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System from 32 states between 2004 and 2010 (n=81,983). Multivariable regression is employed to examine the association of the UC option with Medicaid/CHIP enrollment during pregnancy among eligible women who were uninsured preconception (n=45,082) and those who had insurance (but not Medicaid) preconception (n=36,901). Multivariable regression is also employed to assess the association between the UC option and receipt of adequate prenatal care, measured by the Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index.
Results: Residing in a state with the UC option is associated with a greater probability of Medicaid enrollment during pregnancy relative to residing in a state without the policy both among women uninsured preconception (88% vs. 77%, P<0.01) and among women insured (but not in Medicaid) preconception (40% vs. 31%, P<0.01). Residing in a state with the UC option is not significantly associated with receiving adequate prenatal care, among both women with and without insurance preconception.
Conclusions: The UC option provides states a key way to expand or simplify prenatal insurance coverage, but further policy efforts are needed to ensure that coverage improves access to high-quality prenatal care.
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Ronald Thompson et al.
American Journal of Public Health, December 2013, Pages S282-S288
Objectives: We examined whether substance-use disorders and poverty predicted first-time homelessness over 3 years.
Methods: We analyzed longitudinal data from waves 1 (2001–2002) and 2 (2004–2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions to determine the main and interactive effects of wave 1 substance use disorders and poverty on first-time homelessness by wave 2, among those who were never homeless at wave 1 (n = 30 558). First-time homelessness was defined as having no regular place to live or having to live with others for 1 month or more as a result of having no place of one’s own since wave 1.
Results: Alcohol-use disorders (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.34), drug-use disorders (AOR = 2.51), and poverty (AOR = 1.34) independently increased prospective risk for first-time homelessness, after adjustment for ecological variables. Substance-use disorders and poverty interacted to differentially influence risk for first-time homelessness (P < .05), before, but not after, adjustment for controls.
Conclusions: This study reinforces the importance of both substance-use disorders and poverty in the risk for first-time homelessness, and can serve as a benchmark for future studies. Substance abuse treatment should address financial status and risk of future homelessness.
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Untangling the Relationship Between Mental Health and Homelessness Among a Sample of Arrestees
Andrew Fox et al.
Crime & Delinquency, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research has focused on the intertwined relationship between homelessness, mental illness, and criminal justice. Although a well-established correlation between mental illness and homelessness has emerged, a better understanding of how this may be mediated by other prominent risk factors such as substance use or victimization is warranted. The current study uses data obtained from 3,673 recently booked arrestees to examine these relationships. Using structural equation modeling with measured variables, the analyses indicate the relationship between mental health and homelessness to be almost entirely mediated by alcohol use, drug use, and violent victimization. Policy implications are discussed.
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David Harding et al.
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
Former prisoners are at high risk of economic insecurity due to the challenges they face in finding employment and to the difficulties of securing and maintaining public assistance while incarcerated. This study examines the processes through which former prisoners attain economic security, examining how they meet basic material needs and achieve upward mobility over time. It draws on unique qualitative data from in-depth, unstructured interviews with a sample of former prisoners followed over a two- to three-year period to assess how subjects draw upon a combination of employment, social supports, and public benefits to make ends meet. Findings reveal considerable struggle among our subjects to meet even minimal needs for shelter and food, although economic security and stability could be attained when employment or public benefits were coupled with familial social support. Sustained economic security was rarely achieved absent either strong social support or access to long-term public benefits. However, a select few were able to leverage material support and social networks into trajectories of upward mobility and economic independence. Policy implications are discussed.