December 30, 2024
Coverage, Counter-cyclicality and Targeting of Work Requirement Waivers in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program limits benefits for able-bodied adults without dependents unless they work at least 20 hours per week, but states have historically been able to waive this requirement in areas deemed to have weak labor markets. A new county-level dataset of waivers from 1997 to 2023 shows that waivers expanded substantially over time and were somewhat responsive to unemployment changes but were frequently granted in counties with relatively low unemployment. Simulations indicate that specific waiver rules—particularly the 20 percent unemployment rule and the ability to group counties—significantly increased waiver coverage and weakened targeting to areas with the weakest labor markets.
December 4, 2024
Shifting Patterns of Social Interaction: Exploring the Social Life of Urban Spaces Through A.I.
Abstract We analyze changes in pedestrian behavior over a 30-year period in four urban public…
December 2, 2024
Why Has Construction Productivity Stagnated? The Role of Land-Use Regulation
Abstract We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per…
November 19, 2024
Low-Rise Multifamily and Housing Supply: A Case Study of Seattle
Abstract We provide an in-depth case study of land use reforms in Seattle to highlight…
November 7, 2024
Introducing the “More Accurate Consumer Price Index”
Abstract Particularly since the 1990s, federal statistical agencies have worked to improve the ability ofvarious…
October 22, 2024
Poverty, Hardship, and Government Transfers
Abstract We examine how the well-being of those with few resources changed, amidst economic disruption…
August 29, 2024
The Distribution of Social Capital across Individuals and its Relationship to Income
Abstract There have been several attempts to measure social capital—the value inhering in relationships—at an…
August 28, 2024
Race, Ethnicity, and Measurement Error
Abstract Large literatures have analyzed racial and ethnic disparities in economic outcomes and access to…
June 10, 2024
Employment and Labor Supply Responses to the Child Tax Credit Expansion: Theory and Evidence
AbstractThe 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion increased government benefits to families, andespecially to families…
May 16, 2024
Critiquing Bastian (2022, 2023, 2024, and forthcoming): On Child Tax Credit Reform and the Sensitivity of Single Mothers to Work Incentives
In 2021, Congress passed and President Biden signed a major, but temporary, reform to the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Among other reforms to the credit, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) made it available to non-workers on the same basis as workers. Attempts to make this reform permanent foundered, in part, due to opposition from policymakers who worried that the new credit would lead workers to withdraw from the labor force and otherwise discourage work. These concerns drew strength from a working paper by a team of economists at the University of Chicago, published that fall, that predicted that making the ARPA CTC permanent would lead nearly 1.5 million parents to leave employment, most of them lower-income single mothers.
April 26, 2024
Human Capital Spillovers and Health: Does Living Around College Graduates Lengthen Life?
Abstract Equally educated people are healthier if they live in more educated places. Every 10…
April 17, 2024
Homelessness and the Persistence of Deprivation: Income, Employment, and Safety Net Participation
Abstract Homelessness is arguably the most extreme hardship associated with poverty in the United States,…