All Research
Op-Ed
The Brewing Revolution in Public Housing
…and culture of the programs so that they no longer foster long-term dependency. Quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, who initiated the housing voucher program, described long-term relief as a…
Multimedia
Kevin Corinth: Growth vs. Redistribution in the Fight Against Poverty
…and how much has come from economic growth?In a recent paper, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Kevin Corinth and economist Richard Burkhauser examine nearly a century of American poverty trends….
Blog Post
Welfare Reform and Its Discontents
…after. My colleagues, Richard Burkhauser and Kevin Corinth, show that from 1967 to 1993, while child poverty fell by 3 percentage points when looking at income after taxes and transfers,…
Article
The American Dream Lives in Suburbia
…versions. John Updike’s Rabbit novels and Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road were among the 1960s-inflected novels on these themes. The message: Suburban life is impossibly stultifying and repressive. Nobody is actually happy living in a brick…
Op-Ed
The Hidden Factor in Student Success: Family Structure
…system is “rigged against students of color.” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards went so far as to say black students are “being locked out—this is segregation.” Missing from the debate is any…
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….
Op-Ed
On the Federal Deficit, Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit Won’t Be Enough
…called for defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which liberals regularly derided as “killing Big Bird.” As Politico reported in 2010, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Newt Gingrich all called…
Working Paper
Poverty and Dependency in the United States, 1939–2023
…the full income measures developed by Burkhauser et al. (2024) for subsequent years. From 1939–1963, poverty fell by 29 percentage points, with even larger declines for Black people and all…
Op-Ed
How Not to Redefine Poverty
…a pre-tax measure, but spending depends on after-tax income. The latter has increased more than pre-tax income. The most comprehensive effort to address these issues is a recent paper by Richard Burkhauser,…
Op-Ed
Reliability of Government Data Often Requires Asterisks, a Hazard That Predates Liberal Gripes About Trump Manipulating Statistics
…Republicans dubbed a “liberal wish list,” the Ways and Means Committee’s chairman, Congressman Richard Neal said in June 2020 that “more than 42 million are out of work.” That figure was apparently…
Op-Ed
The Golden Age of Public Housing—and Why It Didn’t Last
…cut. The Pruitt-Igoe implosion is the perfect symbol of the end of the public housing golden age. It was specifically referenced by President Richard Nixon in 1973 when he announced…
Op-Ed
A Hidden Explanation for the Wealth Gap on Racial Lines That Emerges in the Push to Promote Public Housing
…notably including the housing voucher program initiated in 1973 by Richard Nixon. The housing voucher was judged mainly as positive by comparison with the projects, already symbolized by the implosion…