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Research Archive

April 7, 2025

Discussing President Trump’s tariff formula: Corinth on ‘Bloomberg Insight’

Kevin Corinth, Deputy Director of the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility, discusses how President…

April 4, 2025

President Trump’s Tariff Formula Makes No Economic Sense. It’s Also Based on an Error.

President Trump on Wednesday announced tariffs on practically every foreign country (and some non-countries), ranging…

March 18, 2025

Poorly Defined: Reforming the Poverty Line | POLICY LENS

Ever since President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “war on poverty” in 1964, the US…

March 13, 2025

Two Charts Show Why a Trade War Over Fentanyl Doesn’t Make Sense

Following a month-long pause, President Trump last week reimposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, only to pause…

March 11, 2025

An Evaluation of Cost Saving Reforms of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

AbstractCongress is considering ways to reduce spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by…

February 28, 2025

Less Than Half of Medicaid Recipients Work Enough to Comply With a Work Requirement

Congress is considering implementing work requirements for Medicaid. This reform could help Congress achieve its…

February 4, 2025

The Family First Act Would Expand Net Income Tax Refunds to Higher Income Families

Some pro-family conservatives are rallying around Rep. Blake Moore’s (R-UT) Family First Act. Relative to a clean extension…

January 24, 2025

The Targeting of Place-Based Policies: The New Markets Tax Credit Versus Opportunity Zones

Abstract For a place-based policy to succeed, it must target the right areas—typically those with…

January 21, 2025

President Trump’s USDA Should Fix Food Stamp Work Requirement Waivers

A 2019 regulation would tighten the criteria states use to waive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. Under existing policy, states can qualify for waivers using several broad criteria and can group contiguous areas together, allowing many counties to receive waivers even when unemployment rates are relatively low. Using county-level data from 1997 to 2023, simulations show that the 2019 rule would substantially reduce waiver eligibility, increase the responsiveness of waivers to changes in local unemployment, and better target waivers to areas with the weakest labor markets.

January 17, 2025

Reforming Work Requirement Waivers in SNAP

December 30, 2024

What’s Behind the Unprecedented Rise in Homelessness, and How Can We Reverse It?

The annual United States homeless population estimates for 2024 were released last week. Homelessness grew…