Programs in Aid of the Poor

Programs in Aid of the Poor PDF Author: Sar A. Levitan
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801871221
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty," launching a variety of new antipoverty programs and enhancing existing ones. This war is still being fought. But with what success? And at what cost? Incorporating new data from the 2000 census, the eighth edition of Programs in Aid of the Poor provides an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of current federal programs aimed at alleviating poverty in the United States. The authors focus on programs that offer cash support, provide goods and services to poor people, address the well-being of children and youth, prepare young people to earn above-poverty incomes, and offer adults a second chance to earn their way out of poverty. They also discuss the definition of poverty, identify who the poor are, and generalize the causes of poverty. "To an extent," the authors find, "we have prosecuted our war against poverty the way Senator George Aiken of Vermont advised that we do in Vietnam: 'Declare victory and go home.' Yet the war against poverty has not been abandoned. Skirmishes continue, with widely fluctuating commitment." Co-authors Garth and Stephen Mangum and Andrew Sum have also prepared a companion volume, The Persistence of Poverty in the United States, analyzing the underlying causes of poverty and its persistence in America.

Programs in Aid of the Poor

Programs in Aid of the Poor PDF Author: Sar A. Levitan
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801871221
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty," launching a variety of new antipoverty programs and enhancing existing ones. This war is still being fought. But with what success? And at what cost? Incorporating new data from the 2000 census, the eighth edition of Programs in Aid of the Poor provides an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of current federal programs aimed at alleviating poverty in the United States. The authors focus on programs that offer cash support, provide goods and services to poor people, address the well-being of children and youth, prepare young people to earn above-poverty incomes, and offer adults a second chance to earn their way out of poverty. They also discuss the definition of poverty, identify who the poor are, and generalize the causes of poverty. "To an extent," the authors find, "we have prosecuted our war against poverty the way Senator George Aiken of Vermont advised that we do in Vietnam: 'Declare victory and go home.' Yet the war against poverty has not been abandoned. Skirmishes continue, with widely fluctuating commitment." Co-authors Garth and Stephen Mangum and Andrew Sum have also prepared a companion volume, The Persistence of Poverty in the United States, analyzing the underlying causes of poverty and its persistence in America.

Poor Economics

Poor Economics PDF Author: Abhijit V. Banerjee
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610391608
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics upend the most common assumptions about how economics works in this gripping and disruptive portrait of how poor people actually live. Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer these questions based on years of field research from around the world. Called "marvelous, rewarding" by the Wall Street Journal, the book offers a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty and an intimate view of life on 99 cents a day. Poor Economics shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.

Making Aid Work

Making Aid Work PDF Author: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262260395
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
An encouraging account of the potential of foreign aid to reduce poverty and a challenge to all aid organizations to think harder about how they spend their money. With more than a billion people now living on less than a dollar a day, and with eight million dying each year because they are simply too poor to live, most would agree that the problem of global poverty is our greatest moral challenge. The large and pressing practical question is how best to address that challenge. Although millions of dollars flow to poor countries, the results are often disappointing. In Making Aid Work, Abhijit Banerjee—an "aid optimist"—argues that aid has much to contribute, but the lack of analysis about which programs really work causes considerable waste and inefficiency, which in turn fuels unwarranted pessimism about the role of aid in fostering economic development. Banerjee challenges aid donors to do better. Building on the model used to evaluate new drugs before they come on the market, he argues that donors should assess programs with field experiments using randomized trials. In fact, he writes, given the number of such experiments already undertaken, current levels of development assistance could focus entirely on programs with proven records of success in experimental conditions. Responding to his challenge, leaders in the field—including Nicholas Stern, Raymond Offenheiser, Alice Amsden, Ruth Levine, Angus Deaton, and others—question whether randomized trials are the most appropriate way to evaluate success for all programs. They raise broader questions as well, about the importance of aid for economic development and about the kinds of interventions (micro or macro, political or economic) that will lead to real improvements in the lives of poor people around the world. With one in every six people now living in extreme poverty, getting it right is crucial.

Legacies of the War on Poverty

Legacies of the War on Poverty PDF Author: Martha J. Bailey
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610448146
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Many believe that the War on Poverty, launched by President Johnson in 1964, ended in failure. In 2010, the official poverty rate was 15 percent, almost as high as when the War on Poverty was declared. Historical and contemporary accounts often portray the War on Poverty as a costly experiment that created doubts about the ability of public policies to address complex social problems. Legacies of the War on Poverty, drawing from fifty years of empirical evidence, documents that this popular view is too negative. The volume offers a balanced assessment of the War on Poverty that highlights some remarkable policy successes and promises to shift the national conversation on poverty in America. Featuring contributions from leading poverty researchers, Legacies of the War on Poverty demonstrates that poverty and racial discrimination would likely have been much greater today if the War on Poverty had not been launched. Chloe Gibbs, Jens Ludwig, and Douglas Miller dispel the notion that the Head Start education program does not work. While its impact on children’s test scores fade, the program contributes to participants’ long-term educational achievement and, importantly, their earnings growth later in life. Elizabeth Cascio and Sarah Reber show that Title I legislation reduced the school funding gap between poorer and richer states and prompted Southern school districts to desegregate, increasing educational opportunity for African Americans. The volume also examines the significant consequences of income support, housing, and health care programs. Jane Waldfogel shows that without the era’s expansion of food stamps and other nutrition programs, the child poverty rate in 2010 would have been three percentage points higher. Kathleen McGarry examines the policies that contributed to a great success of the War on Poverty: the rapid decline in elderly poverty, which fell from 35 percent in 1959 to below 10 percent in 2010. Barbara Wolfe concludes that Medicaid and Community Health Centers contributed to large reductions in infant mortality and increased life expectancy. Katherine Swartz finds that Medicare and Medicaid increased access to health care among the elderly and reduced the risk that they could not afford care or that obtaining it would bankrupt them and their families. Legacies of the War on Poverty demonstrates that well-designed government programs can reduce poverty, racial discrimination, and material hardships. This insightful volume refutes pessimism about the effects of social policies and provides new lessons about what more can be done to improve the lives of the poor.

Social Programs that Work

Social Programs that Work PDF Author: Jonathan Crane
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610441427
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Many Americans seem convinced that government programs designed to help the poor have failed. Social Programs That Work shows that this is not true. Many programs have demonstrably improved the lives of people trapped at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. Social Programs That Work provides an in-depth look at some of the nation's best interventions over the past few decades, and considers their potential for national expansion. Examined here are programs designed to improve children's reading skills, curb juvenile delinquency and substance abuse, and move people off welfare into the workforce. Each contributor discusses the design and implementation of a particular program, and assesses how well particular goals were met. Among the critical issues addressed: Are good results permanent, or do they fade over time? Can they be replicated successfully under varied conditions? Are programs cost effective, and if so are the benefits seen immediately or only over the long term? How can public support be garnered for a large upfront investment whose returns may not be apparent for years? Some programs discussed in this volume were implemented only on a small, experimental scale, prompting discussion of their viability at the national level. An important concern for social policy is whether one-shot programs can lead to permanent results. Early interventions may be extremely effective at reducing future criminal behavior, as shown by the results of the High/Scope Perry preschool program. Evidence from the Life Skills Training Program suggests that a combination of initial intervention and occasional booster sessions can be an inexpensive and successful approach to reducing adolescent substance abuse. Social Programs That Work also acknowledges that simply placing welfare recipients in jobs isn't enough; they will also need long-term support to maintain those jobs. The successes and failures of social policy over the last thirty-five years have given us valuable feedback about the design of successful social policy. Social Programs That Work represents a landmark attempt to use social science criteria to identify and strengthen the programs most likely to make a real difference in addressing the nation's social ills.

Background Material and Data on Major Programs Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means

Background Material and Data on Major Programs Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economic assistance, Domestic
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description


A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309483980
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 619

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Book Description
The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

The Poverty Industry

The Poverty Industry PDF Author: Daniel L. Hatcher
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479874728
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
"Hatcher [posits that] state governments and their private industry partners are profiting from the social safety net, turning America's most vulnerable populations into sources of revenue"--

The Privileged Poor

The Privileged Poor PDF Author: Anthony Abraham Jack
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674239660
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
An NPR Favorite Book of the Year “Breaks new ground on social and educational questions of great import.” —Washington Post “An essential work, humane and candid, that challenges and expands our understanding of the lives of contemporary college students.” —Paul Tough, author of Helping Children Succeed “Eye-opening...Brings home the pain and reality of on-campus poverty and puts the blame squarely on elite institutions.” —Washington Post “Jack’s investigation redirects attention from the matter of access to the matter of inclusion...His book challenges universities to support the diversity they indulge in advertising.” —New Yorker The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors—and their coffers—to support a more diverse student body. But is it enough just to admit these students? In this bracing exposé, Anthony Jack shows that many students’ struggles continue long after they’ve settled in their dorms. Admission, they quickly learn, is not the same as acceptance. This powerfully argued book documents how university policies and campus culture can exacerbate preexisting inequalities and reveals why some students are harder hit than others.

Lords of Poverty

Lords of Poverty PDF Author: Graham Hancock
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 9780871134691
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
"First published in Great Britain in 1989 by Macmillan London Limited"--T.p. verso. Bibliography: p. 195-226.