Showing papers by "Zachary Parolin published in 2018"

Poor state, rich state: Understanding the variability of poverty rates across U.S. states

Abstract: According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, state-level poverty rates range from a low of less than 10 percent in Iowa to a high of more than 20 percent in California. We seek to account for these differences using a theoretical framework proposed by Brady, Finnigan, and Hubgen (2017), which emphasizes the prevalence of poverty risk factors as well as poverty penalties associated with each risk factor. We estimate state-specific penalties and prevalences associated with single motherhood, low education, young households, and joblessness. We also consider state variation in the poverty risks associated with living in a black household and a Hispanic immigrant household. Brady et al. (2017) find that country-level differences in poverty rates are more closely tied to penalties than prevalences. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we find that the opposite is true for state-level differences in poverty rates. Although we find that state poverty differences are closely tied to the prevalence of high-risk populations, our results do not suggest that state-level antipoverty policy should be solely focused on changing 'risky' behavior. Based on our findings, we conclude that state policies should take into account cost-of-living penalties as well as the state-specific relationship between poverty, prevalences, and penalties.

Assessing the policy and practice impact of an international policy initiative: the State of the World's Midwifery 2014.

Abstract: Understanding how policies lead to changes in health systems and in practice helps policymakers and researchers to intervene more successfully. Yet identifying all the possible changes that occur as a result of a new policy is challenging not only methodologically and logistically, as limited resources are available to conduct indefinite evaluations, but also theoretically, as a complete mapping and attribution of post-hoc changes requires a full understanding of the mechanisms underpinning all change. One option is to identify possible changes across a number of policy impact domains. Using a Policy Impact Framework, we brought together data from media, documents and interviews to identify changes to midwifery policy, practice and provision, following the launch of a new global policy initiative, the State of the World’s Midwifery (SoWMy 2014) report published in 2014. We used these identified impacts to develop a map of the mechanisms underpinning these changes. SoWMy 2014 contributed to a number of changes at national levels, including increased status of midwifery within national governments, improved curricula and training opportunities for midwives, and improved provision of and access to midwifery-led care. These contributions were attributed to SoWMy 2014 via mechanisms such as stakeholder interaction and acquisition of government support, holding national and international dissemination and training events, and a perceived global momentum around supporting midwifery provision. Policy initiatives of this kind can lead to changes in national and international policy dialogue and practice. We identify factors and mechanisms that are likely to increase the scope and scale of these changes, at contextual, national and global levels. Identifying changes following a policy using a policy impact framework can help researchers and policymakers understand why policies have the effect they do. This is important information for those wishing to increase the effectiveness of future policies and interventions.

Extreme Child Poverty and the Role of Social Policy in the United States

Abstract: This paper applies improved household income data to reevaluate the levels, trends, composition, and role of social policy in extreme child poverty in the U.S. from 1997-2015. Unlike prior research, we correct for the underreporting of means-tested transfers and incorporate the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Doing so reduces the share of children below $2 per day from about 1.8% to 0.1%. That said, we acknowledge use of survey data omits the estimated 1.3 million homeless children in 2014-2015. We find that three different measures of extreme child poverty have declined since 1997. Unlike prior literature’s focus on single motherhood, citizenship status is the more consequential characteristic. Between 58-73% of children in extreme poverty live in households headed by non-citizens. Simulations granting them access to the median SNAP benefit reduce their extreme poverty substantially. Two-way fixed effects models show that higher state-level generosity and take up of SNAP and TANF significantly reduce extreme poverty. Unlike prior research’s focus on the decline of TANF, we show SNAP has grown in generosity and take-up. In turn, changes to social policy since 1997 have probably had offsetting effects on extreme child poverty.

Rising Inequalities and Welfare Generosity: Structural Constraints on the Adequacy of Minimum Incomes in European and American Welfare States

Abstract: This article investigates whether economic forces that have led to increasing wage inequalities also place structural constraints on the ability of welfare states to protect the most vulnerable in society. Throughout the past two decades, the capacity of minimum income packages to lift low-income households above the poverty line has stagnated or decreased across much of the European Union and the United States. In evaluating the determinants behind these trends, this paper introduces a framework to conceptualize the tensions facing modern welfare states in their attempt to (1) provide poverty-alleviating minimum income protections, (2) achieve employment growth, and (3) keep spending levels in check. We argue that, due to downward pressure on low-skilled labor, it has become more difficult to balance each of those three objectives; accordingly, we observe that the stagnation of low gross wages contributes to a ‘structural inadequacy’ around minimum income protections for the jobless. Albeit with large differences in both levels and trends, these structural constraints span across all welfare state ‘regimes’. Our findings have direct implications for future policy changes to minimum income protections, as well as growing public and academic interest in the potential of a universal basic income.

Automation and occupational wage trends: what role for unions and collective bargaining?

Abstract: nell'ambito della sezione del convegno dedicata alla ricerca di frontiera circa l'impatto del cambiamento tecnologico sulle preferenze socio-politiche, l'intervento si sofferma sull'impatto dell'innovazione tecnologica sui salari e la contrattazione collettiva relativamente ai diversi profili professionali. automation and occupational wage trends: what role for unions and collective bargaining? zachary parolin