DRAFT Course Outline
PP 403: Poverty and Social Welfare Policy
Ariel Kalil and Susan Mayer
Fall Quarter 2012
Tuesdays 3:00-5:50
This course examines the causes and consequences of poverty in the United States and reviews
the major social policies used to reduce poverty. It will emphasize U.S. policy approaches but
will also include material on other countries for a comparative perspective. The course will
emphasize empirical research from a broad range of sources including economics, political
science, sociology, developmental psychology, and public health.
The types of questions to be addressed include the following: What is poverty? Why is poverty
so persistent? Why are poverty rates for minorities so high? Is there a culture of poverty? What is
the causal impact of poverty on children and adults? What is the effect of social policies on
poverty? What are the interrelationships among poverty, family structure, parental behavior,
inner city neighborhoods, education, labor market conditions, and public policies? Is poverty
passed on from generation to generation?
Students are expected to attend class, prepare discussion questions for each class and participate
in class discussions, lead the class discussion once per quarter, prepare a policy memo, and
complete a take-home final exam.
Course Outline and Required Readings
Week 1: Understanding poverty: Concepts, measurement and trends
Hoynes, Hilary and Marianne Page and Ann Huff Stevens (2006.) “Poverty in America:
Trends and explanations” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1):47-68.
Bruce D. Meyer James X. Sullivan. (2009.) “Five decades of consumption and income
poverty.” NBER Working Paper 14827: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14827
“Introduction to measuring poverty: A new approach,” National Academy of Sciences
(on Chalk)
Week 2: Short-and long-run consequences of childhood poverty
Brooks-Gunn, J. & Duncan, G. (1997). The effects of poverty on children. The Future of
Children, 7 (2), 55-71.
McLeod, J.D., & Shanahan, M.J. (1993). Poverty, parenting and children’s mental health.
American Sociological Review, 58,3:351–66.
Duncan, J., Ziol-Guest, K., & Kalil, A. (2010). Early Childhood Poverty and Adult Attainment,
Behavior and Health. Child Development, 81, No. 1, pp. 306-325.
Week 3: Part 1: Overview of the US welfare state.
Moffitt, Robert. (2008.) “A primer on U.S. welfare reform” Focus 26 (1).
Part 2: Work and poverty
Blank, Rebecca. (2007) “Improving the safety net for single mothers who face serious
barriers to work.” The Future of Children, 17 (2): 183-197.
Sawhill, Isabel and Ron Haskins. (2002.) “Welfare reform and the work support system.”
Brookings Institution Policy Brief #17
Meyer, Bruce D. (2010) “The effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit and recent
reforms.” Tax Policy and the Economy, 24 (1): 153-180
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/649831 .
Week 4: Human capital and poverty
Ladd, Helen, “Education and poverty: Confronting the evidence.” Forthcoming in
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Also available at: http://sanford.duke.edu/research/papers/SAN11-01.pdf
Deming, David and Susan Dynarski, (2009.) “Into college, out of poverty? Policies to
increase the postsecondary attainment of the poor” NBER Working Paper No. 15387
Holzer, Harry. (2012) “Going, Going…Gone? The evolution of workforce development
programs for the poor since the War on Poverty” Unpublished Manuscript, Georgetown
University.
http://npc.umich.edu/news/events/war-on-poverty-june-conference/holzer.pdf
Week 5: The effectiveness of income support policies: Cash and non-cash transfers
Craig Gundersen, Brent Kreider, and John Pepper (2011.) “The economics of food
insecurity in the United States.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 33(3), pp.
281–303.
Marianne P. Bitler, Jonah B. Gelbach, Hilary W. Hoynes and Madeline Zavodny. (2004.)
“The impact of welfare reform on marriage and divorce” Demography, Vol. 41, No. 2:
pp. 213-236
Ben-Shalom and Robert Moffitt and John Karl Schulz (2011.) “An Assessment of the
effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in the United States.” NBER Working Paper
17042
http://www.nber.org/papers/w17042
Week 6: Fertility, family structure, and poverty
Sara McLanahan (2004). “Diverging Destinies: How Children Fare Under the Second
Demographic Transition.” Demography. 41(4): 607-627.
W. Bradford Wilcox and Andrew J. Cherlin (2011). “The Marginalization of Marriage in
Middle America.” Brookings CCF Brief #46
Isabel Sawhill, Adam Thomas, and Emily Monea. (2010). An Ounce of Prevention:
Policy Prescriptions to Reduce the Prevalence of Fragile Families. Future of Children, 20
(2).
K. Boo (2003, August 18). The Marriage Cure: Is Wedlock Really a Way Out of
Poverty?” The New Yorker
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2003/the_marriage_cure
Week 7: Family dynamics, behavior, and attitudes
Guryan, J., Hurst, E., and Kearney, M. (2008). “Parental Education and Parental Time with
Children.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 22(3): 23-46.
Greg Duncan, Rachel Dunifon and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (2001). “As Ye Sweep, So Shall Ye
Reap” American Economic Review - Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 91, No. 2, pp. 150-154.
Oscar Lewis, "The Culture of Poverty," Scientific American, October 1966.
Week 8: The effectiveness of early childhood interventions to break the cycle of poverty
Currie, J. (2001) “Early childhood education programs.” Journal of Economic Perspectives
15: 213-238
Gormley, W.T., & Phillips, D. (2005). The effects of universal pre-K in Oklahoma: Research
highlights and policy implications. The Policy Studies Journal, 33(1), 65-82
Duncan, Greg and Jens Ludwig and Katherine Magnuson. (2007.) “Reducing Poverty
through pre-School interventions” Future of Children 17(2): 143-160.
Heckman, James J. 2006. “Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged
children.” Science 312(5782): 1900-1902
Week 9: The effectiveness of two-generation and youth interventions to break the cycle of
poverty
Duncan, Greg and Aletha Huston, Vonnie McLoyd, Thomas Weisner, Danielle Crosby,
Marika Ripke and Carolyn Eldred. (200.) “Impacts on children of a policy to promote
employment and reduce poverty: New Hope after five years.” Developmental Psychology 41
(6): 902 -18
Eckenrode, John, Mary Campa, Dennis Luckey, Charles Henderson Jr., Robert Cole, Harriet
Kitzman, Elizabeth Anson, Kimberly Sidora-Arcoleo, Jane Powers, and David Olds. (2010.)
“Long-term Effects of Prenatal and Infancy Nurse Home Visitation on the Life course of
Youths: 19-Year Follow-up of a Randomized Trial.” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent
Medicine. 164 (1): 9-15.
Rector, Robert. (2002.) “The Effectiveness of Abstinence Education Programs in Reducing
Sexual Activity Among Youth” American Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder #1533.
Kirby, D. (2002) “Do Abstinence-Only Programs Delay the Initiation of Sex Among Young
People and Reduce Teen Pregnancy?” National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Week 10: Part 1 Social context and poverty
Quillian, Lincoln (2012.) “Segregation and poverty concentration : The role of three
segregations.” American Sociological Review 2012 77: 354.
Ludwig, Jens and Jeffrey B. Liebman, Jeffrey R. Kling, Greg J. Duncan, Lawrence F.
Katz, Ronald C. Kessler, and Lisa Sanbonmatsu (2008.) “What can we learn about
neighborhood effects from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment?” American Journal
of Sociology, Vol. 114, No. 1, pp. 144-188.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/588741 .
Part 2: Conclusion to the class
Ludwig, Jens and Susan Mayer. (2006.) "Culture and the intergenerational transmission of
poverty: The prevention paradox.” The Future of Children, 16 (2): 175-196.