"Working and Poor provides a valuable analysis of the role that public policy changes can play in improving the plight of the working poor."
-POLICY & PRACTICE

"[F]or students of poverty who want to obtain an up-to-date account of trends in the economy, their general effects on low-skill workers, and the efficacy of different policies, this is the volume to turn to."
-JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY 

"This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which business cycles and long-term trends in the economy impact the employment and earnings of the poor. This is an extremely important topic given that most poor households have at least one worker. Rebecca M. Blank, Sheldon H. Danziger, and Robert F. Schoeni have succeeded in bringing together many of the leading scholars of these issues in a nuanced portrayal of the situation of the working poor in America over the past twenty- five years. Working and Poor will be an invaluable resource to both scholars and policymakers who are interested in their plight."
-JANET CURRIE, professor of economics and chair, Columbia University

"Working and Poor presents the best studies by the best scholars of the many links between the nation's long-term economic performance and the well-being of low-skill workers in poor families. Working within a coherent framework, the authors first document the relevant linkages, emphasizing those involving gender and minority status, productivity and technical change, and labor market and family structure. They then draw out the policy lessons of their findings emphasizing tax, social assistance, child support, unemployment insurance, and health insurance policies. The volume will be found on the desks of all those interested in the labor market, poverty, or social policy, be they researchers, policymakers, or students."
-ROBERT HAVEMAN, professor emeritus of public affairs and economics, Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"This first-rate collection breaks important new ground in providing a comprehensive and insightful examination of the economic well-being of less-skilled workers and low-income families. The contributors, all leading experts, offer in-depth and highly readable analyses of the impact of economic and policy changes over the past quarter century, and lessons for public policy. Working and Poor is a must-read book for those concerned with poverty and the working poor."
-FRANCINE D. BLAU, Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University

Over the last three decades, large-scale economic developments, such as technological change, the decline in unionization, and changing skill requirements, have exacted their biggest toll on low-wage workers. These workers often possess few marketable skills and few resources with which to support themselves during periods of economic transition. In Working and Poor, a distinguished group of economists and policy experts, headlined by editors Rebecca Blank, Sheldon Danziger, and Robert Schoeni, examine how economic and policy changes over the last twenty-five years have affected the well-being of low-wage workers and their families.

Working and Poor examines every facet of the economic well-being of less-skilled workers, from employment and earnings opportunities to consumption behavior and social assistance policies. Rebecca Blank and Heidi Schierholz document the different trends in work and wages among less-skilled women and men. Between 1979 and 2003, labor force participation rose rapidly for these women, along with more modest increases in wages, while among the men both employment and wages fell. David Card and John DiNardo review the evidence on how technological changes have affected less-skilled workers and conclude that the effect has been smaller than many observers claim. Philip Levine examines the effectiveness of the Unemployment Insurance program during recessions. He finds that the program’s eligibility rules, which deny benefits to workers who have not met minimum earnings requirements, exclude the very people who require help most and should be adjusted to provide for those with the highest need.  On the other hand, Therese J. McGuire and David F. Merriman show that government help remains a valuable source of support during economic downturns.  They find that during the most recent recession in 2001, when state budgets were stretched thin, legislatures resisted political pressure to cut spending for the poor.

Working and Poor provides a valuable analysis of the role that public policy changes can play in improving the plight of the working poor. A comprehensive analysis of trends over the last twenty-five years, this book provides an invaluable reference for the public discussion of work and poverty in America.

REBECCA M. BLANK is codirector of the National Poverty Center and dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, and professor of economics at the University of Michigan.

SHELDON H. DANZIGER is Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy and codirector of the National Poverty Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

ROBERT F. SCHOENI is research associate professor at the Institute for Social Research, associate professor of Economics and Public Policy, at the University of Michigan.

CONTRIBUTORS: David Autor, George J. Borjas, Maria Cancian, David Card, Kerwin Kofi Charles, John DiNardo, Robert W. Fairlie, Eric French, Steven J. Haider, Robert E. Hall, Kevin A. Hassett, Susan Houseman, Phillip B. Levine,  Helen Levy, Rebecca A. London, Bhashkar Mazumder, Kathleen McGarry, Therese J. McGuire, David F. Merriman, Daniel R. Meyer,  Anne Moore, Heidi Shierholz,  Melvin Stephens Jr., Christopher Taber.

A Volume in the National Poverty Center Series on Poverty and Public Policy
 

More than one in five American children live below the poverty line, a proportion that exceeds that of any other advanced nation. Although large numbers of Western European children live with single or unemployed parents, or belong to disadvantaged minorities, they are better shielded from severe deprivation by carefully designed public assistance programs. Saving Our Children from Poverty describes one of the most successful European systems of assistance for families, that of France, and through comparison with American programs offers a valuable guide to improving our own safety net for children and reforming our dysfunctional welfare system.

Saving Our Children from Poverty details the array of benefits available to both high- and low-income families in France. Government-run nursery schools provide free, high-quality care for almost all children between the ages of three and six. Children also receive guaranteed medical care under a national health insurance plan. The French system offers married couples most of the same benefits as single parents, and creates strong incentives to seek and hold jobs rather than remain on welfare. A French single mother who chooses to work still receives substantial income supplements, housing assistance, subsidized health care, and access to public child care facilities. In stark contrast, her American counterpart loses most of her cash benefits if she takes a job and receives no government assistance with child care. Because American policies focus disproportionately on aiding the poorest non-working families, parents forced to rely on low-wage jobs are frequently left without the resources to provide their children with an adequate standard of living.

As the public debate on welfare reform continues to rage, ever more American children fall into poverty. Why does the nation remain so unresponsive to their plight? Saving Our Children from Poverty probes the American aversion to national assistance programs, citing the negative attitudes that have seeped into the current political discourse. A lack of faith in the federal government's administrative abilities has bolstered a trend toward decentralization of programs, as well as a growing resistance to taxation. Racial antipathies and a belief that financial support encourages irresponsibility further undermine the development of programs for those in need.

Saving Our Children from Poverty illustrates what a nation no wealthier than ours can realistically accomplish and afford, and concludes with a viable blueprint for successfully applying aspects of France's system to the United States.

BARBARA R. BERGMANN is professor of economics at American University, Washington, D.C.

"From A to Z, from Richard Alba to Min Zhou, this is an impressive and important book. Between its covers are assessments by some of America's most skilled analysts of a liberal conundrum and one of the thorniest problems facing our society today: the effects of immigration on the lives and prospects of African Americans."
-Contemporary Sociology

The American dream of equal opportunity and social mobility still holds a powerful appeal for the many immigrants who arrive in this country each year. but if immigrant success stories symbolize the fulfillment of the American dream, the persistent inequality suffered by native-born African Americans demonstrates the dream's limits. Although the experience of blacks and immigrants in the United States are not directly comparable, their fates are connected in ways that are seldom recognized. Immigration and Opportunity brings together leading sociologists and demographers to present a systematic account of the many ways in which immigration affects the labor market experiences of native-born African Americans.

With the arrival of large numbers of nonwhite immigrants in recent decades, blacks now represent less than 50 percent of the U.S. minority population. Immigration and Opportunity reveals how immigration has transformed relations between minority populations in the United States, creating new forms of labor market competition between native and immigrant minorities. Recent immigrants have concentrated in a handful of port-of-entry cities, breaking up established patterns of residential segregation,and, in some cases, contributing to the migration of native blacks out of these cities. Immigrants have secured many of the occupational niches once dominated by blacks and now pass these jobs on through ethnic hiring networks that exclude natives. At the same time, many native-born blacks find jobs in the public sector, which is closed to those immigrants who lack U.S. citizenship.

While recent immigrants have unquestionably brought economic and cultural benefits to U.S. society, this volume makes it clear that the costs of increased immigration falls particularly heavily upon those native-born groups who are already disadvantaged. Even as large-scale immigration transforms the racial and ethnic make-up of U.S. society—forcing us to think about race and ethnicity in new ways—it demands that we pay renewed attention to the entrenched problems of racial disadvantage that still beset native-born African Americans.

FRANK D. BEAN is professor of sociology and director of the Immigration Policy Research Project at the University of California, Irvine.

STEPHANIE BELL-ROSE was formerly legal counsel and program officer at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

CONTRIBUTORS: Richard D. Alba, Barry Edmonston, Walter C. Farrell Jr., Mark A. Fossett, William H. Frey, Jennifer E. Glick, Jomas H. Johnson, Karen D. Johnson-Webb, John R. Logan, Jeffrey S. Passel, Alejandro Portes, Michael J. Rosenfeld, Marta Tienda, Jennifer Van Hook, Roger Waldinger, Mary C. Water, Michael J. White, Franklin D. Wilson, Min Zhou.