All Research
Report
Comment on Proposed Rule Establishing Flexibility for Implementation of Work Requirements and Term Limits in Federal Housing Assistance Programs
…vouchers. Federal rental assistance discourages self-sufficiency Maximum benefit amounts for federal rental assistance programs vary by location, as PHAs set payment standard tied to the Fair Market Rent in an area,…
Op-Ed
Chicago’s “Disappearing Middle Class” Can Be Found in Its Proliferating Upper Middle-Class Neighborhoods
…a benchmark that changes over time and is tied to typical contemporary income. If everyone’s income doubles, the middle class is no larger, yet everyone’s income has doubled. In our…
Report
How Policy and Demographics Are Reshaping SNAP: From Families with Children to Older Adults
…May. https://spra.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Elder-SNAP-Full-Report.pdf. Li, Qingxiao, and Metin Çakır. 2024. “Estimating SNAP Purchasing Power and Its Effect on Participation.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 106(2): 779–804. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12399. McCarty, Maggie, Mary Daniels, and Mark P. Keightley. 2025. Housing…
Op-Ed
There Are Many Reasons to Cheer Up About the State of the Middle Class
…the benefits have outweighed them and that it’s not my business to convince wives and husbands otherwise. I don’t necessarily disagree with Dougherty that Americans are chasing consumption of market…
Blog Post
Young Men Aren’t Checked Out. We’ve Closed the Paths That Once Guided Them
…a different story. Fewer young men are in stable relationships. Many remain economically insecure. Educational pathways feel uncertain or misaligned with the labor market. The result is a growing gap…
Commentary
Time Limits and Work Requirements Would Improve Subsidized Housing Programs
…an apartment with a market rent as high as $5,301 per month. If their monthly income was $1,000, they would pay around $300 in rent, and the federal government would…
Op-Ed
Don’t Tax the Public Housing Poor Like They’re Rich
…can assess its local housing market conditions first. We may think of public housing as a big city program, but it’s found across America, including in small towns in the…
Op-Ed
States Can Strengthen Families and Fight Welfare Dependence and Fraud
…divides power for a reason. Alaska is not Mississippi. California is not Michigan. Their economies, labor markets, demographics, and costs of living differ dramatically. A one‑size‑fits‑all welfare model designed in…
Op-Ed
Reforming Health Care
…insurance markets. The policies and patient cost-sharing requirements offered by competing insurers should be standardized so that consumers can easily identify high and low-premium plans. In today’s market, insurers hide…
Blog Post
The Mirage of “Pro-Worker AI” via Public Policy
…of jobs—from managing large companies to running nationwide shipping networks. (A Hayekian point seems relevant here: Government planners lack the specialized knowledge and real-time market information to both pick winning…
Commentary
Young Men’s Earnings over the Long Run – An Update
…the decline in men’s labor force participation as a failure of the labor market to provide opportunities to less-skilled men. However, the evidence is more consistent with rising affluence affording…
Blog Post
States Are Taking the Reins on College Accountability
Last year’s budget reconciliation legislation, more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), marked a turning point in federal higher education policy. For the first time, Congress attached real consequences…