Skip to Navigation

Russell Sage Foundation Reports and Working Papers

Please use the fields below to search through the available RSF reports and working papers. You may enter a search term, and/or sort by RSF Program and program subcategories. To complete your search, click the "Search" button.

What's in Your Wallet? New Sources of Heterogeneity in Americans’ Economic Evaluations

Wendy M. Rahn; Philip Chen
Working Paper; 2012

Nearly three years after the official end of the Great Recession, the American economy is starting to show, at long last, some “moderate” improvement as the nation heads into a presidential election campaign in which the economy is likely to be a central issue. Yet some parts of the macroeconomy are more improved than others. Housing prices, for example, after having fallen more than 30% (or more, in certain hard-hit areas) off their 2006 peak, have yet to bottom out and it may be years before any significant price appreciation returns.

Contract Form, Wage Flexibility and Employment

Thomas Lemieux; W. Bentley MacLeod; Daniel Parent
Working Paper; 2012

The current recession has shown, yet again, that theory and evidence are on a collision course. Competitive labor market theory predicts that downturns should have only modest e ffects on unemployment. A decrease in aggregate demand might lower output and the demand for labor, but this does not necessarily imply higher unemployment. Lower demand for labor leads to lower wages, with the consequence that some individuals might leave the labor market. The remaining workers need only lower their wage demands until suitable employment is found.

Home Ownership's Wild Ride, 2001-2011

Emily Rosenbaum
U.S. Census 2010; 2012

Home ownership is a cornerstone of the American Dream for the economic and social benefits it conveys, but the past decade was a nightmare of foreclosures and inaccessibility for some groups. By 2011, the ownership gaps between black and white households, poor and rich households, less-educated and more-educated households widened considerably compared to the situation a decade earlier. In addition, America’s younger generations have had greater nancial obstacles to homeownership than did previous generations at the same stage in life: a fate unlikely to change soon.

The Effects of Housing Assistance on Labor Supply: Evidence from a Voucher Lottery

Brian A. Jacob; Jens Ludwig
American Economic Review; 2012

This study estimates the effects of means-tested housing programs on labor supply using data from a randomized housing voucher wait-list lottery in Chicago. Economic theory is ambiguous about the expected sign of any labor supply response. We find that among working-age, able-bodied adults, housing voucher use reduces labor force participation by around 4 percentage points (6 percent) and quarterly earnings by $329 (10 percent), and increases Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program participation by around 2 percentage points (15 percent).

Parent Involvement Policy in Established and New Immigrant Destinations

Melissa J. Marschall; Paru Shah; Katherine M. Donato
Social Science Quarterly; 2012

This study examines how schools situated in different “contexts of reception” go about the critical task of engaging and supporting immigrant parents. Using data from the 2003–04 National Center for Educational Statistics’ Schools and Staffing Surveys, we estimate regression models to test the effects of cultural brokers, teacher training, and professional development on school policies and practices specifically designed to engage and support immigrant parents as well as more traditional, school- and home-based parent involvement programs.