Making Health a Shared Value

A solid majority of Americans, from both parties, endorse paid family and medical leave. There are proposals for paid leave in Congress and the President’s budget. A recent bipartisan proposal from an AEI/Brookings working group, of which I am a member, is also garnering a lot of attention. This is an opportune time to enact a federal policy to provide paid family and medical leave to all employees. 

ABC/CARE was a comprehensive, birth through age five early childhood development program that included early health, nutrition, parental education and early childhood education. Complementing their recent cost-benefit analysis of the ABC/CARE program, Dr. James Heckman and his team look at the differences in outcomes based on gender in their paper, Gender Differences in the Benefits of an Influential Early Childhood Program.

The research team found that high-quality early childhood education programs had the potential to deliver a 13.7% per child, per year return on investment through better outcomes in health, education, and employment. The economic return of the two programs was substantially higher than had been previously found for preschool programs serving 3- to 4-year-olds, which have previously estimated only a 7-10% return on investment.

Here’s what you should know about place and disadvantage, and how they work together to cut lives short.

Building on their work as a past Policies for Action research hub, this project will leverage existing data sources to evaluate the impacts of various past and present policies on health and racial equity in New York.

Participating in organized sports has been shown to promote positive social development, contribute to positive youth development, and increase social emotional learning amongst adolescents. The skills acquired through sports participation have potential life course implications and may give adolescents the skills they need to successfully navigate challenges not only during this developmental period, but also later in life.

This project will generate actionable evidence about the economic impacts of dual taxation and the effect of a dual-taxation solution concerning the existing racial wealth gap on Tribal lands.

Studies have shown employee ownership (EO) increases worker income and wealth, including for low- and moderate-income workers and workers of color. However, these studies are not conclusive regarding benefits to Black workers specifically, nor across all types of employee-owned companies, do not include the experience of Black business owners, and do not compare the Black EO experience against economic policies and practices in the government and private sectors.

This project will analyze public input from two statewide reparations processes for Black and Native Californians and create additional participatory research to define reparations with Black, Native, Asian, and Latinx owners of land-based businesses, advocates, and California State staff, engaging them in analyzing climate and agricultural programs for racial disparities.

While recently much attention has been given to the racial wealth gap, little systematic research exists on the relative effectiveness of proposals to eliminate the gap. Frequent claims regarding potential solutions have been made, including cancellation of student debt and “baby bonds” (a publicly funded child trust account).

The economic gap between Black people and white people living in The Mississippi Delta continues to be exacerbated by predatory payday lending practices. Since the 1990s, payday lending availability has increased exponentially in Mississippi.

This project will examine two experimental GI studies in Georgia. The first study randomly enrolled 654 Black women to receive a GI for two years, with participants randomized into one of two disbursement models. The second study, embedded in a non-profit serving unhoused individuals, will randomly assign 200 current clients to receive either standard housing support or housing support plus $400/month for one year.