Income and Wealth

William H. Dow, Anna Godoey, Christopher Lowenstein and Michael Reich released a National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper investigating whether “deaths of despair” respond to two key policies that raise incomes for low-wage workers: the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Heidi Hartmann and Will Dow are the codirectors of P4A’s new Research Hub at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the University of California, Berkeley. We sat down with them to learn more about their research portfolio and why it matters for policymakers, advocates, and community leaders.

Last week, an editorial on the decline in US life expectancy, authored by P4A codirector Laudan Aron and Stephen Woolf, director of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, was published in the British Medical Journal.

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 economic security and health equity (ESHE) project examines the drivers and effects of state preemption laws in Kansas and Missouri that limit local government control over economic and housing policies.

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.

This project will build on and contribute to a growing body of research into the impact of public banks – financial institutions created by governments and chartered to serve the public interest – and their potential to address interlocking health, housing, and climate crises and reduce the racial wealth gap.