The Russell Sage Foundation has recently approved the following Presidential Authority awards in three of its program areas—Future of Work, Social Inequality, and Behavioral Economics—as well as three conferences for upcoming issues of the RSF journal.

RSF Journal Conferences:

The Coleman Report at 50: Its Legacy and Enduring Value
Karl Alexander and Stephen Morgan (Johns Hopkins University)

For an upcoming issue of RSF, Karl Alexander and Stephen Morgan organized a symposium featuring fourteen invited articles for the fiftieth anniversary of the quality of the 1966 Educational Opportunity Report, or “Coleman Report,” which assessed the lack of equal educational opportunities for minority children in the U.S. The issue will examine the Report’s methods and its substantive conclusions through the lens of advances over the past half century across several social science disciplines.

Undocumented Immigration
Roberto G. Gonzales (Harvard University) and Steven Raphael (University of California, Berkeley)

For an upcoming issue of RSF, Roberto Gonzales and Steven Raphael organized a symposium featuring nine articles that examine the effects of federal, state, and local policy on immigrants’ experience of living undocumented and explore how undocumented status affects social mobility and civic participation.

Wealth Inequality
Fabian Pfeffer and Robert Schoeni (University of Michigan)

For an upcoming issue of the RSF, Fabian Pfeffer and Robert Schoeni organized a symposium featuring nine articles that examine the determinants of high and rising levels of wealth inequality, its economic and social consequences, and potential policy responses.

Awards approved in the Future of Work program:

The Impact of New York City's Paid Sick Days Law on Business
Ruth Milkman (CUNY Graduate Center) and Eileen Appelbaum (Center for Economic Policy Research)

Milkman and Appelbaum will continue their previous research on states’ paid family leave programs to investigate how New York City’s 2014 paid sick days law has effected a range of employers and employees across several different industries.

Work Dynamics of Low-Income Single Mother Families in New York City
Ajay Chaudry (New York University)

Chaudry will follow up on the research from his 2004 book that analyzed childcare arrangements of low-income single mothers in New York City. He will re-interview participants from the prior study about their job histories in the intervening years, and changes in family structure, income, residence, and children’s school experiences.

Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority and Democratic Votes
Zoltan Hajnal (University of California San Diego)

Zoltan Hajnal will examine the impact of voter identification laws on minorities and other disadvantaged groups. He will compare turnout of individuals in states with strict photo identification laws to turnout in other states and test whether the turnout gap between different groups (such as whites and minorities, the middle class and the lower class, or Republicans and Democrats) is greater in strict voter ID states.

Comparing the Skill Levels of Computers with the Skills Possessed By Adults
Stuart Elliott (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Stuart Elliott will organize a conference to examine the potential effects of technology on future employment by using the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills to define the skill levels of computers and compare them with the skills possessed by adults in three skill areas: literacy, numeracy, and problem solving using computers.

The Mechanisms Behind Rising Employer Skill Requirements
Alicia Sasser Modestino (Northeastern University) and Daniel Shoag (Harvard University)

Continuing their previous RSF research on employer “upskilling,” Alicia Modestino and Daniel Shoag will conduct 40 in-depth interviews with members from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce to examine how employers decide to set skill requirements and explore the factors that drive “upskilling,” especially in the wake of the Great Recession.

Awards approved in the Social Inequality program:

Capital Gains and Income Inequality in the United States
Joel Slemrod (University of Michigan)

Joel Slemrod will examine the role of capital gains in economic inequality, examining factors such as the timing of taxable capital gains realizations and other income, gains from non-qualified stock options, capital gains from passive versus active investments, and the changing technology of capital gains.

How Macroeconomic Conditions, Educational Credentials, and Ascribed Characteristics Influence Economic Inequality
S. Michael Gaddis (Pennsylvania State University)

S. Michael Gaddis will collect new data to examine how the value of educational credentials, such as a college degree, has changed in the wake of the recession, and whether these changes have in turn affected racial discrimination in the labor market.

To What Extent Do Circumstances Beyond People's Control Determine Income Inequality?
John Roemer (Yale University) and Andreas Peichl (University of Mannheim, Germany)

John Roemer and Andreas Peichl will explore the extent to which circumstances that occur in a child’s life before an “age of consent” play a causal role in income determination, looking not just at factors such as race, gender, and parental education, but also at lesser-explored childhood characteristics including health, cognitive ability, and social development.

Social Mobility and Preferences for Redistribution
Stefanie Stantcheva and Alberto Alesina (Harvard University)

Stefanie Stantcheva and Alberto Alesina will examine how perceptions of social mobility affect support for economic redistribution. They will document Americans’ perceptions of, and views about, social mobility, and compile a large, representative and comprehensive new dataset and analyze how these perceptions of social mobility affect people’s support for various redistributive policies.

Capitalism, Globalism, and Democracy
Robert Kuttner (Brandeis University)

Robert Kuttner will work on a book that assesses how globalization has complicated the project of managing capitalism and even affected democracy itself. He will investigate the extent to which globalization, technology, cultural shifts, and domestic policies have contributed to growing wealth and income inequality in the U.S. and other countries.

Award approved in the Behavioral Economics program:

Racially-Biased Distance Perception in Law Enforcement Decisions
Jay Van Bavel (New York University)

Building on his previous research that suggests that distance perception may affect law enforcement officers’ decision to shoot an unarmed suspect, Jay Van Bavel will examine how factors including the race of suspects could affect distance and speed perceptions among law enforcement and thereby increase officers’ decisions to shoot either black or white suspects.