NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
ROBERT F. WAGNER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE
PADM-GP 2445
Poverty, Inequality, and Policy
Fall 2013
Wednesday 6:45pm – 8:25pm, GCASL 388
Professors Caitlyn Brazill and Rachel Swaner
Contact Information:
Caitlyn Brazill
caitlyn.brazill@gmail.com
Office hours: by appointment
Rachel Swaner
RLS200@nyu.edu
Office hours: by appointment
Course Prerequisites:
Students must have completed CORE-GP.1011 (Statistical Methods), CORE-GP.1018 (Microeconomics
for Public Management, Planning, and Policy Analysis), and CORE-GP.1022 (Introduction to Public
Policy) or URPL-GP.2660 (History and Theory of Planning).
Course Description:
This course uses a multidisciplinary social science approach to examine the intersections of inequality,
poverty, and public policy, particularly within the United States. We will explore various ways to
theorize, measure, and research poverty – examining income and wealth – as well as the historic role
public policy has played in creating and reinforcing existing inequalities.
Course Requirements:
Class preparation and participation are essential for this course. Students are expected to read required
texts in advance and be prepared to participate in class discussions. There is both a speaking and listening
component to participation: sharing your ideas and reflecting on/responding to the ideas of others. For the
last 6 class sessions, a different group of 5 students will lead a discussion of the readings and facilitate a
conversation about that week’s topic. In addition to class participation and the group presentation,
students will be required to write two memos, write two short reflections to readings, and work in pairs to
write a final paper about a particular policy issue related to poverty and inequality. More detailed
instructions of all assignments are on NYU Classes.
Relative Weight of Assignments:
Class Participation 10%
Memo #1
10% (due 9/25/13)
Memo #2
10% (due 10/23/13)
Policy Responses
10%
Group Presentation 20%
Final Paper
40% (due 12/11/13)
Course Materials:
 Iceland, John. 2012. Poverty in America: A Handbook. Berkeley: University of California Press.
(This book provides an overview on current issues in the poverty field.)
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MacLeod, Jay. 2008. Ain’t No Makin’ It, Third Edition. Boulder: Westview Press. (This is an
ethnographic study that examines the social structure and aspirations of two sets of male youth, and
re-connects with them every eight years until these men are in their forties.)
Additional journal articles, policy reports, and newspaper articles that are specified each week. These
materials are on NYU Classes under Resources, with the exception of the NY Times articles, for
which links are provided below.
Course Schedule and Readings:
PART I – CONTEXT AND LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
Week 1: 9/4/13 – Introductions and Course Overview
 Iceland Chapter 1 (Introduction)
 Iceland Chapter 4 (Characteristics of the Poverty Population)
 This week we will select groups for class presentations.
Week 2: 9/11/13 – How do we measure poverty?
 Iceland Chapter 3 (Methods of Measuring Poverty)
 Center for Economic Opportunity. 2013. “The CEO Poverty Measure, 2005-2011.” Pages 1-41.
Available at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/ceo/downloads/pdf/ceo_poverty_measure_2005_2011.pdf
 Meyer, Bruce and Sullivan, James. 2012. “Identifying the Disadvantaged: Official Poverty,
Consumption Poverty, and the New Supplemental Poverty Measure.” Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 26(3): 111-136. (Focus on Tables 1 and 2, and the broad-brush idea of the
consumption comparison, rather than its details).
 Haveman Robert, and Wolff Edward N. 2004. “The Concept and Measurement of Asset Poverty:
Levels, Trends and Composition for the U.S., 1983-2001.” Journal of Economic Inequality, 2(2):
145-169.
 Esall, Thomas. 2013. “Who is Poor?” New York Times, March 13, 2013. Available at:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/who-is-poor/
 GUEST SPEAKER: Mark Levitan, Director of Poverty Research, NY Center for Economic
Opportunity
Week 3: 9/18/13 – Economic Mobility
 MacLeod Chapter 1 (Social Immobility in the Land of Opportunity)
 MacLeod Chapter 3 (Teenagers in Clarendon Heights: The Hallway Hangers and the Brothers)
 Chetty Raj, Hendren Nathaniel, Kline Patrick, and Saez Emmanuel. 2013. “The Economic
Impacts of Tax Expenditures: Evidence from Spatial Variation Across the U.S.” White paper.
Available at: http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/tax_expenditure_soi_whitepaper.pdf
 Economic Mobility Project. 2012. “Economic Mobility Across Generations.” Washington, DC:
The Pew Charitable Trusts. Available at:
http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/Pursuing_American_Dream.pdf
Week 4: 9/25/13 – Overview of Anti-Poverty Programs; The Effects of Poverty
 Iceland Chapter 7 (Poverty and Policy)
 Holzer HJ, Whitmore Schanzenbach D, Duncan G, and Ludwig J. 2007. “The Economic Costs of
Poverty in the United States: Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor.” Institute for
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Research on Poverty Discussion Paper #1327-07. Available at:
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irpweb/publications/dps/pdfs/dp132707.pdf
Haskins, Ron. 2011.“Fighting Poverty the American Way.” Paper prepared for conference on
―Anti-Poverty Programs in a Global Perspective: Lessons from Rich and Poor Countries, held
by the Social Science Research Center in Berlin on June 20-21, 2011.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne and Duncan, Greg. 1997. “The Effects of Poverty on Children.” The Future
of Children, Summer/Fall 1997 7(2): 55-71. Available at:
https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/07_02_03.pdf
Memo #1 due
PART II – THEORIES OF POVERTY
Week 5: 10/2/13 – Social Stratification, Race, and Ethnicity
 Iceland Chapter 5 (Causes of Poverty)
 Massey, Douglas. 2007. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. Russell
Sage Foundation. Chapter 1 (How Stratification Works) and Chapter 3 (Reworking the Color
Line).
Week 6: 10/9/13 – The Role of Social and Cultural Capital
 MacLeod Chapter 2 (Social Reproduction in Theoretical Perspective)
 MacLeod Chapter 6 (School: Preparing for the Competition)
 Coleman, James. 1988. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.” American Journal of
Sociology, S95-S120.
 Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. “Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction.” In Power and Ideology
in Education, Eds. J. Karabel and A. H. Halsey. New York: Oxford University Press. Pages 487511.
 Final paper policy proposal topic chosen (send via email)
Week 7: 10/16/13 – Economic Processes
 MacLeod Chapter 9 pages 162-184, Chapter 10 pages 198-213, and Chapter 14 pages 409-427
 MacLeod Chapter 11 (Conclusion: Outclassed and Outcast(e))
 Wilson, William Julius. 1996. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, Chapter 2, “Societal Changes and Vulnerable Neighborhoods”: pp. 25-50.
 Gottschalk, Peter. 1997. “Inequality, Income Growth and Mobility: The Basic Facts.” Journal of
Economic Perspectives, 11(2): 21-40.
PART III – SPECIFIC POLICY ARENAS
Week 8: 10/23/13 Income Support Policies
 Bitler, Marrianne and Hoynes, Hilary. 2010. “The State of the Safety Net in the Post-Welfare
Reform Era.” NBER Working Paper. Available at: http://www.frbsf.org/economicresearch/files/wp10-31bk.pdf
 Blank, Rebecca. 2007. “What we know, what we don’t know and what we need to know about
welfare reform.” National Center on Poverty Working Paper. Available at:
http://www.npc.umich.edu/publications/u/working_paper07-19.pdf
 Holt, Steve. 2011. “Ten Years of the EITC Movement: Making Work Pay Then and Now.”
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Brookings Institution. Available at:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/4/18%20eitc%20holt/0418_eitc_ho
lt.pdf
Forthcoming, MDRC Evaluation of Family Rewards
GUEST SPEAKER: Jim Riccio, Director, Low Wage Workers and Communities Policy Area,
MDRC
Memo #2 due
Week 9: 10/30/13 Housing/Neighborhood Initiatives
 MacLeod pages 51-61, pages 435-439
 Ludwig J, Duncan GJ, Gennetian LA, Katz LF, Kessler RC, Kling JR, Sanbonmatsu L. 2012.
“Neighborhood Effects on Long-Term Well-Being of Low-Income Adults.” Science, 337(6101):
1505-1510.
 Goetz E. 2010. “Better Neighborhoods, Better Outcomes? Explaining Relocation Outcomes in
HOPE VI.” Cityscape, 12(1): 5-31.
 Haveman R. 2013. “Do Housing Vouchers Work?” Pathways, Spring 2013: 14-17.
Week 10: 11/6/13 Workforce Development
 Mead, Larry. 2007. “Toward a Mandatory Work Policy for Men.” The Future of Children, 17(2):
43-72.
 King, Christopher. 2004. “The Effectiveness of Publicly Financed Training in the United States:
Implications for WIA and Related Programs.” UpJohn Institute for Employment Research.
 Holzer, Harry. 2008. “Workforce Development as an Antipoverty Strategy: What Do We Know?
What Should We Do?” The Urban Institute. Available at:
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411782_workforce_development.pdf
 Linderman, Donna and Kolenovic, Zineta. 2012. “Results Thus Far and the Road Ahead: A
Follow-up Report on CUNY Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP).” Available at:
http://www.cuny.edu/academics/programs/notable/asap/ASAP_Followup_Report_020112.pdf
Week 11: 11/13/13 Education and Early Childhood Interventions
 Jacob B and Ludwig J. 2009. “Improving Educational Outcomes for Poor Children.” In Changing
Poverty, Changing Policies, eds. M. Cancian and S. Danzinger. Chapter 10, pages 266-300.
Available at: http://closup.umich.edu/publications/workingpapers/papers/closup-wp-13-improveedu-poor.pdf
 Garces E, Thomas D, and Currie J. 2000. “Longer Term Effects of Head Start.” National Bureau
of Economic Research working paper 8045. Available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w8054.pdf
 Tavernise, Sabrina. 2012. “Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Study Says.” NY
Times, February 9, 2012. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/educationgap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html
Week 12: 11/20/13 The Roles of Assets and Wealth
 Fellowes, Matthew. 2006. “From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower
Income Families.” Brookings Institution. Available at:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2006/7/poverty%20fellowes/20060718_
povop
 Rademacher I, Woo B, and Meier J. 2010. “Upside Down: The $400 Billion Federal Asset
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Building Budget.” CFED and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Available at:
http://cfed.org/assets/pdfs/Upside%20Down.pdf
Grinstein-Weiss, M. et al. 2011. “Ten-Year Impacts of Individual Development Accounts on
Homeownership: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment.” Brookings Institution Working
Paper.
Manturak, K. et al. 2012.“Factors Affecting Completion of a Matched-Savings Program: Impacts
of Time Preference, Discount Rate and Financial Hardship.” UNC Chapel Hill Working Paper.
Week 13: 11/27/13 NO CLASS
Week 14: 12/4/13 The Criminal Justice System
 MacLeod Chapter 12 Steve (p 311-316), Stoney (p 317-327), Chris (328-349)
 Bloom, Dan. 2006. “Employment Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners: What have we learned,
what are we learning, and where should we go from here?” MDRC. Available at:
http://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/full_87.pdf
 Pager, Devah. 2003. “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology, 108(5):
937-975.
 Wacquant, Loic. 2012. “The punitive regulation of poverty in the neoliberal age.” Criminal
Justice Matters, 89(1): 38-40.
 Tierney, John. 2013. “Prison and the Poverty Trap.” NY Times, February 18, 2013. Available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/science/long-prison-terms-eyed-as-contributing-topoverty.html
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