Archive
Disconnected Mothers and the Well-Being of Children: A Research Report
Disconnected Mothers and the Well-Being of Children: A Research Report
Source: Urban Institute
Considerable research attention has been devoted to low-income mothers disconnected from both work and welfare. This body of work has rarely highlighted disconnected mothers’ roles as parents and has remained virtually silent about the experiences and well-being of their children. This paper synthesizes research findings to show that many of the circumstances disconnected mothers face pose major risks to children’s development and potentially serious consequences for children. We describe potential interventions to help disconnected families by increasing and stabilizing family income, enhancing parenting skills, supporting children directly, and reaching out to disconnected mothers who are not citizens.
Less Than Equal: Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation
Less Than Equal: Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation
Source: Urban Institute
Income inequality understates the size of the economic gap between whites and minorities in the United States. In 2010, whites on average had two times the income of blacks and Hispanics, but six times the wealth. Analyses of wealth accumulation over the life cycle show that the racial wealth gap grows sharply with age. Wealth isn’t just money in the bank, it’s insurance against tough times, tuition to get a better education and a better job, savings to retire on, and a springboard into the middle class.
Using Public Surveillance Systems for Crime Control and Prevention: A Practical Guide for Law Enforcement and Their Municipal Partners
Source: Urban Institute
Municipalities across the country are in a constant search for effective public safety interventions that will curb crime and improve the livability and economic well-being of their communities. This is particularly true among law enforcement agencies that embrace a community policing philosophy, which has become a key component of policing efforts in most mid- and large-sized law enforcement agencies across the United States. While many believe that the adoption of community policing has led to more efficient and effective policing strategies, law enforcement agencies continue to grapple with limited resources and are therefore interested in employing new, cost-effective tools that can enhance their community policing efforts. Among the latest wave of public safety tools is the use of public surveillance systems, often referred to as Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV). While public surveillance systems are widely employed in the business sector to improve security, until recently the use of cameras to monitor public spaces has been much less common in the United States, in part due to concerns about privacy and civil liberties. Community policing, which embodies a combination of proactive crime prevention and community engagement with more traditional policing functions, may benefit from this technology because public surveillance can enhance problem solving strategies, aid in arrests and investigations, and ultimately increase offenders’ perceptions that they will be both caught and prosecuted. Public surveillance systems might also yield a secondary impact, serving to increase legitimate users’ perceptions of safety and thus their presence in public areas, which in turn may increase guardianship, improve police-community partnerships, and reduce crime.
The potential contributions to policing and public safety of public surveillance systems perhaps explain why their use has expanded in recent years. Unfortunately, these investments of scarce public safety resources are being made in the absence of research documenting the decisions behind camera investment and use and the lessons learned by cities that have employed this technology.
This guidebook aims to fill that gap, detailing the results of an in-depth qualitative data collection effort to examine and synthesize the experiences of three large urban cities that have invested in public surveillance systems in recent years. It serves as a companion document to an evaluation of the impact of public surveillance cameras in three cities that found that cameras can have a significant and cost-effective impact on crime.10 While cameras hold promise as an effective crime prevention tool, however, it is important to note that their impact is not a given, and varies considerably based on where cameras are located and the degree to which they are monitored and integrated into other law enforcement activities. This report is therefore designed to guide city administrators, law enforcement agencies, and their municipal partners in making decisions regarding their public surveillance systems in a manner that will yield the greatest intended impact. The guidebook answers many of the important questions that arise when implementing or expanding a public surveillance system. It details the various aspects of a system that are integral in realizing a cost-beneficial impact on crime, including budgetary considerations, camera types and locations, how best to monitor cameras, and the role that video footage plays in investigations and prosecutions. This publication also highlights the most prominent lessons learned in an effort to guide both city administrators and jurisdictions that are currently investing in cameras for public safety purposes, as well as inform those that are contemplating doing so.
Depression in Low-Income Mothers of Young Children: Are They Getting the Treatment They Need?
Depression in Low-Income Mothers of Young Children: Are They Getting the Treatment They Need?
Source: Urban Institute
Maternal depression can have severe and lasting consequences for both a mother and her child. This brief uses the National Survey of Drug Use and Health to estimate the prevalence, severity, and treatment of major depression among low-income mothers with young children (ages 0-5). We find that one out of eleven low-income mothers with young children had a major depressive episode in the past year, and nearly one-third did not report receiving any treatment. While uninsured low-income mothers had much lower treatment rates than insured low-income mothers, rates were comparable across treatment providers, suggesting that Medicaid fills an important gap.
Addressing Violence and Disorder around Alcohol Outlets
Addressing Violence and Disorder around Alcohol Outlets
Source: Urban Institute
This report identifies methods for addressing violence and disorder around bars. We find that safe drinking environments and strong community partnerships are key buffers against alcohol-related crimes. Safer drinking environments can be fostered by training bouncers in conflict resolution, ensuring bar design does not create overcrowding, and enforcing laws restricting service to intoxicated persons aggressively. Building partnerships with local businesses and neighborhood groups creates public support both for setting bar safety standards and for closing bars that are chronically problematic. This project was funded by the Justice Grants Administration in the Executive Office of the Mayor.
Lost Generations? Wealth Building among Young Americans
Lost Generations? Wealth Building among Young Americans
Source: Urban Institute
Despite the Great Recession and slow recovery, the American dream of working hard, saving more, and becoming wealthier than one’s parents holds true for many. Unless you’re under 40. Stagnant wages, diminishing job opportunities, and lost home values may be painting a vastly different future for Gen X and Gen Y. Today’s political discussions often focus on preserving the wealth and benefits of older Americans and the baby boomers. Often lost in this debate is attention to younger generations whose wealth losses, or lack of long-term gains, have been even greater.
Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective
Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective
Source: Urban Institute
This issue brief examines unemployment from a child’s perspective, reporting that 6.2 million children lived in families with unemployed parents in 2012. Many of these children live with parents who have been out of work six month or longer. Unemployment insurance covers only 36 percent of children with unemployed parents; unemployed parents are more likely to receive SNAP benefits than UI benefits. The brief provides estimates of children affected by unemployment by state and metropolitan area, considers the effects of parental job loss on child development, and reviews policies affecting the safety net for children of the unemployed.
The Charitable Contribution Deduction: Section 170 Reorganized
The Charitable Contribution Deduction: Section 170 Reorganized
Source: Urban Institute
This paper attempts first to clarify tax rules concerning charitable contributions by reorganizing section 170 and simplifying the language, where possible, so that the operative rules will be clearer. In addition, a revision of the estate and gift tax provisions, intended to increase uniformity, is proposed. The possibility of further substantial simplification is explored in the section by section analysis which follows the proposed code revision. Whether or not the Code is actually revised in accordance with the proposed draft, having this tool available will help analyze the statute.
Uninsured Veterans and Family Members: State and National Estimates of Expanded Medicaid Eligibility Under the ACA
Uninsured Veterans and Family Members: State and National Estimates of Expanded Medicaid Eligibility Under the ACA
Source: Urban Institute
Analysis of the 2008-2010 American Community Survey indicates that 535,000 uninsured veterans and 174,000 uninsured spouses of veterans —or 4 in 10 uninsured veterans and 1 in 4 uninsured spouses—have incomes below 138 percent of poverty and could qualify for Medicaid or new subsidies for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Most have incomes below 100 percent of poverty and will only have new coverage options if their state expands Medicaid. Since uninsurance is related to greater problems accessing care, increased Medicaid enrollment could improve the likelihood that their health care needs are being met.
How Would Reforming the Mortgage Interest Deduction Affect the Housing Market?
How Would Reforming the Mortgage Interest Deduction Affect the Housing Market?
Source: Urban Institute
Opponents of MID reform warn that reducing the deduction would undermine the value of owner-occupied homes and impede the recovery of the depressed housing market. The best available evidence predicts far less dire effects and suggests that some reforms could actually bolster the housing market recovery. However, the results are far from definitive. As debate continues, the Urban Institute plans to further explore behavioral and market changes, strengthening the evidence upon which policymakers can rely.
The Changing Wealth of Americans
The Changing Wealth of Americans
Source: Urban Institute
The Great Recession hit family finances from many directions. Housing and stock prices fell sharply, and along with them, family wealth. As economic output dropped and unemployment rose sharply, those who lost their jobs or were underemployed saw their wealth erode.
The Great Recession had an especially severe impact on the wealth building of Generations X and Y, people of color, and families in low-income neighborhoods. In some cases, the impact only added to longer-term trends prevalent before the recession.
These findings call into question the efficacy of wealth-building tax subsidies that exclude lower-income families; housing policies that adopt a “buy high, sell low” homeownership strategy for those with low and moderate incomes; rental and other subsidies that discourage homeownership; and a pension system that leaves most workers with little or no savings by the time they retire.
How Marginal Tax Rates Affect Families at Various Levels of Poverty
How Marginal Tax Rates Affect Families at Various Levels of Poverty
Source: Urban Institute
High marginal tax rates can make moving above poverty very difficult for low-income families. These high tax rates result from increasing direct taxes and decreasing transfer payments. A single parent with two children who increases her wages from poverty-level to 150 percent of poverty-level can face a tax rate between 26.6 percent and over 100 percent, depending on which state she lives in. In addition, her marginal tax rate can vary radically, depending on her earning pattern. This paper shows how sensitive marginal tax rates are to assumptions about state of residence, earning patterns, and program participation.
The Recession’s Ongoing Impact on Children, 2012: Indicators of Children’s Economic Well-Being
The Recession’s Ongoing Impact on Children, 2012: Indicators of Children’s Economic Well-Being
Source: Urban Institute
This issue brief provides nearly "real-time" tracking of the recession’s impact on children, with state-by-state data through 2012 on children with an unemployed parent and individuals receiving SNAP benefits, as well as the authors’ predictions of state child poverty rates for 2012. There has not been much change in children’s economic well-being over the past year, but there has been a sharp deterioration compared with conditions before the recession. Compared to 2007, more children today live in families with an unemployed parent, families that turn to SNAP benefits to help pay their grocery bills, and/or families below the poverty threshold.
2012 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey Report
2012 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey Report
Source: Urban Institute
The Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute and the Association of Fundraising Professionals established the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) to conduct research on fundraising effectiveness and help nonprofit organizations increase their fundraising results. Piloted in November 2006, FEP collects fundraising data from nonprofit organizations beginning with data for 2004-2005. The Fundraising Effectiveness Survey enables participating groups to measure and compare their fundraising gain and loss ratios to those of similar organizations. This report incorporates data from 3,184 survey respondents received as of February 2012, covering year-to-year fundraising results for 2010-2012.
U.S. Asset Poverty and the Great Recession
U.S. Asset Poverty and the Great Recession
Source: Urban Institute
How has family economic security, as measured by the net worth asset-poverty rate, changed since the onset of the Great Recession? Data from the 2007 and 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances show that one out of every five U.S. families (19.6 percent) was asset poor in 2010, up from 16.1 percent in 2007, which represents over 4 million additional asset-poor families in 2010. The Great Recession’s impact was widespread, the asset-poverty rate increased across the income spectrum, and increased for both white and minority families. Mid-aged families experienced relatively large increases in asset poverty.
Nonprofit Sector is Growing Faster than Rest of the Economy
Nonprofit Sector is Growing Faster than Rest of the Economy
Source: Urban Institute
Even during and after the recession, from 2007 to 2010, nonprofit employment grew 4 percent and wages increased 6.5 percent, while they decreased in the business sector by 8.4 percent and 8 percent, respectively, and increased only 1 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, for government. However, in 8 of the past 10 years, the nonprofit sector spent more than it earned. The gap between revenues and outlays was $65 billion in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Hit Hard but Bouncing Back: The Employment of Immigrants During the Great Recession and the Recovery
Hit Hard but Bouncing Back: The Employment of Immigrants During the Great Recession and the Recovery
Source: Urban Institute
During the Great Recession immigrants lost more employment, relative to their initial employment level, than U.S.-born workers. During the Recovery immigrants gained more employment than U.S-born workers. The employment gains of immigrants during the recovery spread among all educational groups except those with no high school diploma. Among U.S.-born workers, only those with Bachelor’s degree or more gained employment. By mid-2012, the employment of both immigrants and U.S.-born workers were still below the pre-recession level.
Plan Participation in Health Insurance Exchanges: Implications for Competition and Choice
Plan Participation in Health Insurance Exchanges: Implications for Competition and Choice
Source: Urban Institute
This brief examines the conditions under which competition in health insurance exchanges is likely to be effective in placing downward pressure on insurance premiums. We conclude that areas with a single dominant insurer or a dominant hospital system are less likely to experience effective competition. In markets in which there are several insurers with significant market share and no dominant hospital system, the result could be limited or tiered network products that could successfully constrain the cost of premiums. Participation of existing Medicaid plans may also increase effective competition in health insurance exchanges.
On the Distributional Effects of Base-Broadening Income Tax Reform
On the Distributional Effects of Base-Broadening Income Tax Reform
Source: Urban Institute
This paper examines the tradeoffs among three competing goals that are inherent in a revenue-neutral income tax reform — maintaining tax revenues, ensuring a progressive tax system, and lowering marginal tax ratesâ??drawing on the example of the tax policies advanced in presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax plan. Our major conclusion is that any revenue-neutral individual income tax change that incorporates the features Governor Romney has proposed would provide large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers.
Tax Proposals by 2012 Presidential Candidates
Tax Proposals by 2012 Presidential Candidates
Source: Tax Policy Center (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution)
TPC has analyzed the distributional effects of tax proposals from President Obama, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The following pages provide links to TPC research related to the 2012 candidates.
