Rewarding the work of individuals: A counterintuitive approach to reducing poverty and strengthening families

Future of Children

Volumn 17, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 17-42

  Berlin, Gordon L ^a  

^a MDRC ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EMPLOYMENT; FAMILY; FATHER; HEALTH CARE COST; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HIGH SCHOOL; HOUSEHOLD; HUMAN; INCOME; LOWEST INCOME GROUP; MARRIAGE; MEDICAL EDUCATION; MOTHER; PARENT; PARENTHOOD; POVERTY; PUNISHMENT; REVIEW; REWARD; SOCIAL WELFARE; TAX; UNEMPLOYMENT; UNITED STATES; WORK; ARTICLE; POLICY; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; STATISTICS;

FAMILY; HUMANS; INCOME; POVERTY; PUBLIC POLICY; REWARD; SOCIAL FACILITATION; UNITED STATES;

EID: 35448999997     PISSN: 10548289     EISSN: 15501558     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/foc.2007.0013     Document Type: Review

References (36)

1. Sheldon H. Danziger and Peter Gottschalk, "Diverging Fortunes: Trends in Poverty and Inequality," in The American People: Census 2000, edited by Reynolds Farley and John Haaga (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2005), pp. 49-75;
2. Hilary Hoynes, Marianne Page, and Ann Stevens, "Poverty in America: Trends and Explanations," Working Paper 11681 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2005), prepared for a symposium on poverty for the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
3. William J. Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Knopf, 1996);
4. Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas, Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage (University of California Press, 2005);
5. Andrew Cherlin, "American Marriage in the Early 21st Century," Future of Children 15, no. 2 (2005): 33-55.
6. After 1973, the United States dramatically increased spending on social welfare programs, including the EITC, food stamps, and housing assistance, but these transfers are not counted in official poverty statistics. When alternative measures of poverty that include these transfers but subtract for other expenses (like payroll taxes and work-related child care costs) are used, poverty rates do decline, typically by 1 or 2 percentage points. See Constance F. Citro and Robert T. Michael, eds., Measuring Poverty: A New Approach (Washington: National Academies Press, 1995);
7. and U.S. Census Bureau, The Effects of Government Taxes and Transfers on Income and Poverty: 2004 (2006).
8. Danziger and Gottschalk, "Diverging Fortunes" (see note 1);
9. Frank Levy, The New Dollars and Dreams: American Incomes and Economic Change (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998).
10. Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane, The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004);
11. David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, and Melissa S. Kearney, "The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market," Working Paper 11986 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2006);
12. David Card and John E. DiNardo, "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics 20, no. 4 (2002): 733-83.
13. Autor, Katz, and Kearney, "The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market" (see note 5).
14. Peter Edelman, Harry J. Holzer, and Paul Offner, Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men (Washington: Urban Institute Press, 2006).
15. Chinhui Juhn, "Decline of Male Labor Market Participation: The Role of Declining Market Opportunities," Quarterly Journal of Economics 107, no. 1 (1992): 79-122;
16. Edelman, Holzer, and Offner, Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men (see note 7).
17. Andrew Sum and others, Trends in Black Male Joblessness and Year-Round Idleness: An Employment Crisis Ignored (Chicago, Ill.: Alternative Schools Network, 2004);
18. Edelman, Holzer, and Offner, Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men (see note 7).
19. Edelman, Holzer, and Offner, Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men (see note 7);
20. Steven Raphael, "Early Incarceration Spells and the Transition to Adulthood," in The Price of Independence: The Economics of Early Adulthood, edited by Sheldon Danziger and Cecilia Rouse (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, forthcoming 2007).
21. Bruce Western, "The Impact of Incarceration on Wage Mobility and Inequality," American Sociological Review 67, no. 4 (2002): 526-46;
22. Raphael, "Early Incarceration Spells" (see note 10).
23. Cherlin, "American Marriage in the Early 21st Century" (see note 2);
24. Wilson, When Work Disappears (see note 2);
25. Edin and Kefalas, Promises I Can Keep (see note 2).
26. Danziger and Gottschalk, "Diverging Fortunes" (see note 1).
27. Paul R. Amato, "The Impact of Family Formation Change on the Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Well-Being of the Next Generation," Future of Children 15, no. 2 (2005): 75-96.
28. Cherlin, "American Marriage in the Early 21st Century" (see note 2).
29. Kathryn Edin and Joanna M. Reed, "Why Don't They Just Get Married? Barriers to Marriage among the Disadvantaged," Future of Children 15, no. 2 (2005): 117-38.
30. Earl Johnson, Ann Levine, and Fred Doolittle, Fathers' Fair Share: Helping Poor Men Manage Child Support and Fatherhood (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999);
31. Frank Furstenberg Jr., Kay Sherwood, and Mercer Sullivan, Caring and Paying: What Fathers and Mothers Say about Child Support (New York: MDRC, 1992).
32. Edin and Kefalas, Promises I Can Keep (see note 2).
33. Andrew M. Sum and Neal Fogg, "The Changing Economic Fortunes of Young Black Men in America," in The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research 21, no. 1 (1990): 47-56;
34. Ronald B. Mincy, ed., Black Men Left Behind (Washington: Urban Institute Press, 2006).
35. I am grateful to Andrew Sum of Northeastern University for this analysis.
36. Marcia Carlson, Sara McLanahan, and Paula England, "Union Formation in Fragile Families," Demography 41, no. 2 (2004): 237-62.