Re-crunching the numbers: Supplemental Poverty Measure introduced

The Census Bureau recently released a new, Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which will provide an alternative to (but not supplant) the official measure created in 1964 and considered outmoded and inaccurate by many experts.

The SPM takes into account both resources and expenses excluded from the official measure, such as tax credits and child care expenses.

And it is a work in progress that incorporates the combined wisdom of decades of analysis and which will be refined as needed with input from many experts, including those at the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP).

Over the years, IRP has helped inform major efforts to improve the official measure that ultimately guided development of the SPM.

In the early 1990s, IRP affiliates helped develop National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendations, which remain the gold standard, and, a decade later, IRP researchers served on the Committee on National Statistics that updated NAS’s plan.

Most recently, IRP Director Timothy Smeeding co-organized with the Census Bureau and Brookings Institution a May 6, 2010, gathering of experts in Washington to evaluate the new SPM. The first alternative statistics will be published in fall 2011, alongside the official data, the latter of which will still be used for determining government program eligibility.

• Supplemental Poverty Measure Census Bureau observations [pdf]
  
• Joint paper on Supplemental Poverty Measure by Haskins, Moskowitz, and Smeeding
• IRP/Census/Brookings event: Evaluating the Supplemental Poverty Rate Proposal, transcript and audio
• FAQ: How is poverty measured in the United States?
  

Category: Social Sciences
Tags: , ,

La Follette School to host discussion about modern-day slavery

A prize-winning author known for his global research on modern-day slavery will deliver a free public lecture this month at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of a daylong symposium on human trafficking.

Madison native E. Benjamin Skinner, author of "A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery," will speak at 4:30pm on Friday, April 30, in Ebling Auditorium in the Microbial Sciences Building, 1550 Linden Drive.

Skinner, a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy of Harvard Kennedy School and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, went undercover, when necessary, to infiltrate trafficking networks, slave quarries, urban child markets and illegal brothels.

His work received the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, as well as a citation from the Overseas Press Club in its book category for 2008.

"We are excited to host Ben to bring awareness to the global issue of modern-day slavery," says professor Carolyn Heinrich, director of UW-Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs, which is organizing the lecture and symposium.

"Modern-day slavery touches on many public policy issues, including international trade, legal, human rights, social welfare, labor, public health, economic and education," she says. "Yet, due to legal, territorial and institutional barriers-not to mention culturally ingrained practices -- it is a very difficult problem to address and resolve."

Skinner will also be part of the symposium, which will be held from 8:45 a.m.-4 p.m. in 8417 Sewell Social Sciences, 1180 Observatory Drive. Both events are free and open to the public. No registration is required.  

[Read More]

Category: Social Sciences
Tags: , , , , , ,

IRP named new USDA National Food Assistance Research hub

The Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service named the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) the UW–Madison as the RIDGE Center for National Food and Nutrition Assistance Research following a nationwide competition.

As the new RIDGE (Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics) Center, IRP serves as a national hub for sponsoring new, innovative research related to such programs as the food stamp and school lunch programs and as a center for training and mentoring scholars.

ERS also established a second research hub, for targeted studies, at the Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi State University.

The announcement of the two new centers came as food stamp use has increased sharply as the severe economic recession continues.

Nearly one in eight Americans and one in four children received food stamps in October 2009, up 22 percent from a year earlier. In 2010 it is estimated that $60 billion will be spent on this program alone.

Judith Bartfeld—food insecurity researcher, professor in the UW–Madison Department of Consumer Science, specialist with Cooperative Extension, and IRP affiliate—serves as center director. Bartfeld notes, "Food assistance programs are taking on a phenomenally important role as a safety net, and center research will inform policymaking in this area."

• Institute for Research on Poverty selected as national research hub (University Communications)
  
• UW-Madison poverty institute chosen for new nutrition research center (Wisconsin State Journal)
  

Category: Social Sciences
Tags: , , ,

Awards, awards, awards!

‘Tis the season and L&S faculty and students are racking up the awards – congratulations to all!

• Phillips-Court wins publication award from Modern Language Association
• Foundation funds child well-being research of two faculty members
• Communication Arts professor to address William T. Grant Foundation
• Gruffat takes top awards in filmmaking 
• Lucas named NCA 'Distinguished Scholar'
• DeLamater receives Distinguished Service Award
• Dresang receives 'Champion Award' from Women's Philanthropy Council
• Sahai elected a Fellow of Mineralogical Society of America 
• Six honors undergrads receive Trewartha Senior Thesis grants
• History student receives Mark Mensink Honors Senior Thesis Research Award 
• Rodriguez receives 2009 Roberto G. Sánchez Award
• Computer Sciences team heads to world finals of programming competition

Category: College Updates
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Foundation funds child well-being research of two faculty members

The William T. Grant Foundation awarded honors to Maria Cancian and Barbara (Bobbi) Wolfe—two Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) faculty affiliates, former IRP directors, and current La Follette School of Public Affairs faculty members—to advance the well-being of children and families.

Cancian has been named a distinguished fellow—one of three in 2009—and will receive a $190,966 award to fund collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) to examine how the child welfare, child support, and welfare systems interact. 

Cancian will use her award to spend the summer and fall of 2010 working with policymakers at DCF on a range of activities, including quality service reviews and child death reviews within the child welfare system.

Wolfe will use a $355,742 three-year grant to explore how a child’s chronic or severe health problem affects healthy siblings’ development, education, and employment outcomes.

Wolfe shares the award with Marsha Mailick Seltzer, director of the Waisman Center and an IRP faculty affiliate, and Jason M. Fletcher, an assistant professor at Yale University’s School of Public Health and former doctoral student of Wolfe. 

Category: Social Sciences
Tags: , , ,

Moynihan wins Best Book Award, travels to DC for presentation

Professor and LaFollette School Associate Director Donald Moynihan's 2008 book -- "The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform" -- won the Best Book Award from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management.

Books nominated for the award make a significant contribution to modern management theory and/or practice by exploring the public and nonprofit sectors and the relationships among public, nonprofit, and private sector organizations.

Moynihan also recently made a presentation to the National Academies of Science committee on Developing Metrics for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Research in Washington, D.C. The committee is tasked with finding useful ways to measure the performance of science and technology research within the DHS.

Category: Social Sciences
Tags: ,

La Follette School economist wins 10K grant

Outgoing La Follette School of Public Affairs Associate Director Menzie Chinn has won a $10,000 grant from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy to pursue his research on exchange rates and the world economy’s large current account imbalances.  [Read More]

Category: Social Sciences
Tags: , ,