A recursive model that accounts for the variation in the level and distribution of family income across metropolitan areas is formulated and estimated in this paper. The model draws from both the human capital and the job competition theories of the labor market in the emphasis it places on the industrial structure of the metropolitan area. Then,…

College tuition is frequently compared, in press and politics, to the US median family income. That is, however, a highly misleading benchmark since schools with need-based financial aid rarely charge students from median income families the reported sticker price. Working from the financial aid records of individual students at twenty-eight…

THE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS WORKSHOP WERE INTERESTED IN DETERMINING HOW HOME ECONOMISTS MAY WORK MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH THE POOR. THEY INCLUDED WELFARE DIRECTORS, TEACHERS, CASEWORKERS, HOME ECONOMISTS, ECONOMISTS, AND CREDIT AND LIFE INSURANCE REPRESENTATIVES. LOW INCOME WAS DEFINED IN RELATION TO NEED AND TO TOTAL RESOURCES. PRESENTATIONS WERE--(1)…

The Food Stamp Program allows low-income households to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet through normal channels of trade. Because of the generally low income of hired farmworkers, food stamp assistance is an important addition to the economic and nutritional status of these workers and their families. This report presents a socioeconomic…

Describes the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which has followed the economic fortunes of a nationally representative sample of American families since 1968. Presents data on and analysis of sex-based differences in wages, the relationship between family composition and economic well-being, poverty, and welfare dependency. Discusses implications…

The existing housing crisis for Philadelphia's low income families has been exacerbated by a decrease in the real income of these families over the past 10 years, a shortage of affordable housing during the same period, and the deterioration of much of the existing housing stock. "Watching Out for Children in Changing Times," a joint…

This report illustrates how poverty rates vary by selected characteristics (age, race, and Hispanic origin, nativity, family composition, work experience, and geography), using data from the Census Bureau's March 2001 Current Population Survey. The 2000 poverty rate dropped half a percentage point from 1999, to 11.3 percent. This decrease was not…

This report describes 39 successful initiatives that illustrate what 27 cities have been able to accomplish for working families across four goal areas: improving job access and quality employment for residents of underemployed neighborhoods (e.g., connecting quality labor-seeking employers in metropolitan markets with placement and training…

Federal social programs in the 1960s allowed for the emergence of a Black middle class. Current government proposals for massive budget cuts in social programs limit the traditional avenues of access to the middle class and deny many poor Blacks the opportunity to attain the American dream. (Author/MJL)

Notes that President Clinton's final budget provides $94 billion of tax relief for American families. Discusses the education tax credit, including the Hope Scholarship and Pell Grant awards; children's health insurance coverage, aimed primarily at low-income children; the child tax credit, aimed at working families; and the capital gains tax cut,…

Examines the child-care needs and arrangements of working and nonworking-poor and working-class families relative to middle-class families. Suggests that child-care decisions of low-income parents appear to be very similar to those of high-income parents; what differs is access, including convenience, and the ability to afford adequate programs.…

This report uses data collected during the National Evaluation of School Nutrition Project (NESNP-II) in 1983-84 to describe the characteristics of students and households eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the characteristics of NSLP and SBP participants and their households. The NESNP-II…

This report, the first in a series, presents the findings of a 1984 survey to identify the characteristics and problems of the Twin Cities (Minnesota) area's poorest families. Nine hundred and sixty-six low-income households, representing the poorest 20 percent of the population, were interviewed by telephone or in person. At the same time that…

The paper summarizes the results of an analysis of recently issued Census data. Examining the anti-poverty effectiveness of cash and non-cash benefit programs from 1979 to 1986, the analysis focuses on the impacts of those programs on families with children, the group whose poverty rate has risen most rapidly since 1979. The data reveal that…

In this text of hearings held before a congressional committee on the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program are statements from a number of specialists regarding the administration of public assistance, and relevant information on low income families. Specific data and the more general theory of social welfare and reform are…