A Public Health Survey of Topeka

Studies of economic inequality and mobility depend on valid and reliable measures of economic resources. Income data is available from many sources, including census surveys, tax records, and other administrative data. Each data source has strengths and weaknesses.

Proponents of maternity leave policies contend that paid maternity leave produces positive benefits for both the mother and child, including improved parent-child bonding, child and mother health, employment stability and financial security. However, most of the current evidence is based on analyses of European and Canadian programs. This is due in part to the fact that while pregnant American workers can receive up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), there is no national paid leave policy.

Co-funded with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• November 2017: Additional funding of $42,546 awarded

Currently about 2.2 million people in the United States are in jail or prison and another 4.7 million are on probation or parole. Individuals leaving jails or prisons have high rates of health, mental health and substance abuse problems that make it difficult for them to obtain housing, employment and social support. In turn, these difficulties increase the likelihood of re-arrest and re-incarceration. 

Economists continue to debate the effects of raising the minimum wage on employment, and, in particular, whether minimum wage increases have led to fewer jobs at the bottom of the labor market. One methodological issue has been how to construct a valid control group for what would have happened absent increases in the minimum wage. The proliferation of state increases and the implementation of automatic indexing of the minimum wage in some states and cities has increased the range and persistence of real minimum wage differences.

Many scholars have analyzed the effects of immigration on the labor market outcomes of workers. Some have emphasized the effects of immigration on the economy as a whole while others have compared local labor markets that receive many immigrants to those that receive few. Though results have been mixed and researchers have reached different conclusions, both lines of research point to the potential role of local workers' skills and internal migration in adjusting for immigration shocks.

Many less-skilled workers never gain a solid footing or experience upward mobility in the labor market.  These workers often move from one low-wage job to another, with long unemployment spells in between which reduce annual income, diminish skills accumulation and prevent workers from building the employment histories that future employers will seek.

Findings: Effects of the Affordable Care Act on the Use of Alternative Financial Services Providers; Katie Fitzpatrick, Seattle University, and Anne Fitzpatrick, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Co-funded with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation

• September 2019: Additional funding of $35,000 awarded

Co-funded with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation

In recent years, the press has reported that the share of jobs not involving a formal employer-employee relationship is large and growing.  Both media sources and scholars use the term “gig economy” to refer to less-structured work arrangements, as well as the subset of flexible jobs mediated through online platforms.