Whatever Happened to the Emerging Democratic Majority?

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A. Dattels 14 Census Grants Program Generates New Research Researchers use Census data to explore issues of poverty and welfare reform Since 1998, a grants program funded by the U.S. Census Bureau and coordinated by the Joint Center for Poverty Research (JCPR) has produced wideranging research on poverty and welfare reform. Their common thread is the use of data from the Census’ two major longitudinal surveys, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD). IPR Faculty Fellow Greg J. Duncan, Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy, directs the program. At the 2003-04 JCPR/Census Bureau Research Development Grants Conference, four papers were presented: From left: Ariel Kalil, Greg J. Duncan, and Francesca Mazzolari Adolescents Assuming Adult Roles: Factors Associated with Teens Providing Child Care for Younger Siblings In this paper, Jeffrey Capizzano of Teaching Strategies, Inc. and Regan Main and Sandi Nelson of the Urban Institute use 1999 SIPP data to investigate how often teenagers provide child care for younger siblings and the factors that increase the likelihood of this arrangement. Twenty percent of families with at least one teenager and one child under the age of 12 have their teens babysit for 10 hours per week on average. Teens in single-parent households, especially where the parent has a full-time, odd-hour job, babysit longer hours. Having a female teenager does not mean that families are more likely to use this arrangement. Two-parent families use this option more if the child’s primary caretaker is employed odd-hours when fewer formal options exist. Finally, welfare families appear less likely to use adolescent care and for fewer hours compared to single-parent families not on welfare. The Work Disincentive Effects of the Disability Insurance Program in the 1990s Susan Chen of Duke University and H. Wilbert van der Klaauw of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, considered whether Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) actually accounted for a large decline in the number of men aged 35-64 working in the 1990s because of generous benefi ts. By combining SIPP with Social Security data, they found that during the 1990s the work disincentive effects of the DI program were modest: The labor force participation of DI applicants would have been at most 23 percentage points higher had none received benefits compared with the case where all received benefi ts. They fi nd even smaller labor supply responses for a subgroup of “marginal” DI applicants who qualify on the basis of both vocational factors and medical factors (rather than medical factors alone). For these individuals, they found that increasing the age cutoffs for DI award eligibility based on vocational factors would increase the labor supply by 20 hours each month and labor force participation by 12 percentage points. Immigrants’ Welfare Participation after Welfare Reform In addition to overhauling welfare, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 also limited benefi ts for immigrants. Francesca Mazzolari of Rutgers and Nora Gordon of the University of California, San Diego, used SIPP data to detect differential changes in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and Medicaid coverage among immigrants versus natives from 1997 to 2000. They found a disproportionate drop for food stamps, Medicaid, and TANF. No drop was found when comparing naturalized citizens to natives. Where previous studies found little or no decline, the authors found “chilling effects” for noncitizens with at least a high school degree, who live in families where some members are citizens and others are not. This suggests that noncitizen mothers of U.S. children might not be applying for aid due to fear of deportation. Parental Job Loss and Children’s Academic Progress in Two-Parent Families Ariel Kalil and Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest of the Harris School at the University of Chicago use 1996 SIPP data on 4,500 schoolage children to examine the effects of maternal and paternal job loss and unemployment on adolescents’ risk of grade repetition and suspension/expulsion. They fi nd no linkages between mothers’ employment and children’s academic progress. In contrast, they fi nd signifi cant adverse effects of fathers’ job losses on both of these outcomes. In the case of grade repetition, this effect was only true for involuntary losses and was mediated by family income instability. For school suspension/expulsion, multiple job losses that were either (continued on page 21)
P. Reese 15 Learning Experiences Northwestern undergraduates discover research and public policy firsthand Undergraduate Series on Race, Poverty, and Inequality Each year for the past three years, a group of undergraduates has come together to organize a series dedicated to examining the problems of race, inequality, and poverty that persist in American society and its institutions. In 2004-05, the Northwestern Undergraduate Lecture Series on Race, Poverty, and Inequality tackled the subjects of No Child Left Behind, health care, and racial inequality in education. Led by juniors Martin Zacharia and Tyler Jaeckel, the series brings together policymakers, academics, and advocates to campus to broaden students’ understanding of these issues. The series started in October 2004 with a look at the positive and negative impact of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 in the classroom. The students brought together administrators from the Chicago Public Schools and local 2004 Golden Apple winners to discuss their views on NCLB. While both administrators and teachers lauded the ideals and intent of the federal legislation, they believed that the rigid standards did not fully consider the social contexts of students, the complex challenges faced by urban schools, and the difficulty of implementing broad national standards at local levels. At their next program on health care reform, panelists discussed whether malpractice lawsuits are actually driving up medical costs, how to increase Medicaid access for the poor, and the plight of uninsured children. The keynote speaker was Judith Feder, dean of public policy studies at Georgetown University. One of the biggest hurdles to covering the uninsured is getting those who have health insurance to care about those who don’t, she said. Feder also spoke about her experiences as one of the From left: Vanja Vidackovic, Laura Rawski, and Jennifer Cueto discuss their summer research projects with Christopher Taber. senior officials who worked on the Clinton administration’s unsuccessful attempt to create universal health care coverage. The third program dealt with racial inequality in American education. Invited lecturer Pedro Noguera, professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, told the students that it was important to defend public education as an institution. But it was equally important to address the growing inequality of a system where “we spend the most to educate children who have the most and the least on children who need it the most,” he said. “IPR has supported the series from the beginning because we believe it is vitally important for undergraduates to see how researchers and policymakers frame these issues—and be able to debate such views,” said Faculty Fellow Jeff Manza, IPR’s acting director in 2004-05 and professor of sociology. Summer Undergraduate Research Program Northwestern undergraduates also have the opportunity to participate in research projects and to work directly with a professor for 10 weeks by participating in IPR’s Summer Undergraduate Research Assistants Program. This summer, 42 undergraduates took part. Laura Rawski, a senior this fall majoring in political science and pre-law, worked with IPR Faculty Fellow Wesley G. Skogan, professor of political science, on Project Cease Fire, a program aiming to reduce gun violence and thus shootings in Chicago. Rawski researched background information and attended meetings concerning crime on Chicago streets. Her work opened a window for her into the science behind such extensive research, she said. The skills she learned on her summer job will prove valuable to her this fall as she begins to research and write her thesis. As a rising junior majoring in history and international studies with an interest in law, Aisha Arif applied to work with IPR Faculty Fellow Dorothy Roberts, Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law. She conducted interviews and research investigating the negative community impact of the disproportionately large involvement of child welfare agencies in predominantly African American neighborhoods. Although it is not what she specifically plans to study, Arif said the work has “opened me up to a world that I had never been greatly exposed to in my suburban middle-class bubble. It’s the best job I’ve ever had.” “The program allows students to work one on one with professors and exposes them to what research is really like—the exciting and the boring parts,” said the program’s director Christopher Taber, an IPR faculty fellow and Household International Inc. Research Professor of Economics. “It also allows them to make a personal contribution to ongoing public policy research projects.”
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