All Research
Op-ed
New York Families Are Doing Better Than You’ve Heard
…detailed methods.) First, consider how New Yorkers fare between 1970 and 2024 when we define classes in relative terms. Following the approach of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Nathalie P. Voorhees…
Op-ed
What Liberals Get Wrong About the Middle Class
…be fighting to preserve Middle America. But there’s another, much better way the middle class can shrink — when everyone moves up and gets richer. A nation can become so…
Article
Poverty and Dependency in the United States, 1939–2023
…research brief is based on Richard V. Burkhauser and Kevin Corinth, “Poverty and Dependency in the United States, 1939–2023,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper no. 34759, January 2026….
Commentary
Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Data Continue to Amaze—and Not in a Good Way
…California’s recovery efficiency is double the nine percent national average, even as its overpayments established and recovered rank near the bottom of all states when considering the size of their…
Commentary
Zoning Creates Not Just a Housing Affordability Problem, but a Childcare Affordability Problem Too
…low-income families often rely on distant childcare providers. Far from the geographic distribution of childcare establishments being random, or the natural consequence of a free market, in most jurisdictions, the…
Commentary
Bill Would Require States to Use Future Federal Funds to Repay Unemployment Loans First
…to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures, 23 states used $7.6 billion in federal CARES Act funds to boost their UI trust funds; then 26 states (many for…
Op-Ed
When Washington Picks Up the States’ Tab, Waste and Fraud Follow
…accountability rules are making a difference. Meanwhile, whether due to One Big Beautiful Bill Act reforms or other causes, food stamp caseloads nationwide fell by 4.3 million (10%) nationwide in the 12 months through January…
Blog Post
Education Scorecard Looks Beyond Recovery
This week, the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University and the Educational Opportunity Project (EOP) at Stanford University released the Education Scorecard, which uses data from the National…
Working Paper
The Value of Reliable Statistics
Abstract On August 1, 2025, President Trump fired the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and claimed that the agency’s data were “rigged.” In the aftermath, measures…
Op-Ed
Chicago’s “Disappearing Middle Class” Can Be Found in Its Proliferating Upper Middle-Class Neighborhoods
…“The Middle Class Is Shrinking Everywhere — In Chicago It’s Almost Gone.” Both included maps created by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and…
Blog Post
Chairman Smith Is Right About the Need for a Site-Neutral Policy in Medicare
…hospital care when taking into account payments from all sources (the government, private insurers, and consumers). Hospitals account for the largest slice of total national health expenditures, with a 31 percent…
COSM Commentary
Understanding the Recent Declines in SNAP Participation
…the nation’s largest food assistance program for low-income households and has grown substantially over the past 25 years, with participation rising from about 17 million people in 2000 to roughly…