Poverty declined significantly in the decade after the War on Poverty, yet the official poverty rate has never fallen below its 1973 level and remains higher than the rates in many other advanced economies. The authors document how economic, social, demographic, and public policy changes since...

California’s welfare program—the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program—provides cash assistance to needy families while helping them gain self-sufficiency. Toward this end, most adults receiving CalWORKs are required to work; they may also...

This paper reviews family structure, its relationship to employment, and the recession’s impact on poor families. To reduce poverty, the report proposes policies that help parents balance work and caretaking, and support their children.

This article found that changes in income sorting account for more than half of the increase in family income inequality in the United States over the past three decades. Furthermore, income sorting accounts for an even larger share of the growing gap between middle- and low-income families and...

Poverty declined significantly in the decade after the War on Poverty, yet the official poverty rate has never fallen below its 1973 level and remains higher than the rates in many other advanced economies. The authors document how economic, social, demographic, and public policy changes since...

This article found that changes in income sorting account for more than half of the increase in family income inequality in the United States over the past three decades. Furthermore, income sorting accounts for an even larger share of the growing gap between middle- and low-income families and...

California’s welfare program—the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program—provides cash assistance to needy families while helping them gain self-sufficiency. Toward this end, most adults receiving CalWORKs are required to work; they may also...

This paper reviews family structure, its relationship to employment, and the recession’s impact on poor families. To reduce poverty, the report proposes policies that help parents balance work and caretaking, and support their children.

California’s welfare program—the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program—provides cash assistance to needy families while helping them gain self-sufficiency. Toward this end, most adults receiving CalWORKs are required to work; they may also...