March 20, 2026
Re-Centering Family Structure in Opportunity Insights’ Work on Intergenerational Mobility: How Important Is Single Parenthood?
Over the past decade, Opportunity Insights (OI) has transformed the study of intergenerational mobility through innovative uses of administrative data, reshaping the public and scholarly understanding of the factors that affect children’s life prospects. One consistent finding in this literature is the strong association between family structure, especially single parenthood, and upward mobility, though it has received relatively little sustained attention.
July 29, 2021
Reforming Tax Credits to Promote Child Opportunity and Aid Working Families
Reducing poverty should focus on not only short-term income support but also expanding opportunity and promoting upward mobility. Unconditional cash transfers risk discouraging work, marriage, and other behaviors associated with long-term economic mobility. Proposed reforms to the earned income tax credit and child tax credit would strengthen work and marriage incentives, better target tax relief to working- and middle-class families, and create “success sequence” savings accounts that build assets for children from low-income families who meet education, work, and family formation milestones.