“[Waldfogel’s] carefully researched and balanced account demonstrates that committed governments can indeed implement social policies that improve the well-being of their citizens. Her very readable assessment of the British experiment also has relevance for other countries, especially the United States, and her excellent book deserves to be widely consulted.”
—POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY 

“A developed country declaring a major war on poverty comes around once in a generation. People will want to know why they did it, how they went about it, but, even more crucially what the impact was on children. This book is the only one to cover all these dimensions and to do it with style. Britain’s War on Poverty isn’t about Britain—it’s about declaring war on poverty.”
—PAUL GREGG, University of Bristol 

“America had a war on poverty and poverty won; the United Kingdom has waged the same war and is winning it by making steady progress against child poverty. Their child poverty rate is down by half from its starting point, and children are demonstrably better off based on polices they adopted and consistently financed and delivered. Why did the Brits do so much better than the Americans? This splendid book convincingly shows why and how a ‘true to its aims,’ well-financed, and persistent war on poverty can work in an Anglo- Saxon democracy. Jane Waldfogel shows how and why policy can make a difference against poverty if it is a high priority for a nation. Britain’s War on Poverty should be widely and carefully read by social policy analysts and advocates who seek a better future for America’s young children.”
—TIMOTHY M. SMEEDING, University of Wisconsin–Madison 

“This timely volume tells the remarkable story of the British government’s attempt to end child poverty. Professor Waldfogel, who resides in the United Kingdom for several months every year, tells the story with color and passion, emphasizing the similarities and differences between anti-poverty policy in the United States and Britain. Perhaps most interesting and provocative are the lessons she draws from the British experience for a more sweeping commitment by America to greatly reduce the nation’s child poverty rate, which is now higher than it was in the 1970s. Scholars, advocates, and policymakers committed to reducing child poverty will find Britain’s War on Poverty packed with insights about how we should proceed.”
—RON HASKINS, Brookings Institution

In 1999, one in four British children lived in poverty—the third highest child poverty rate among industrialized countries. Five years later, the child poverty rate in Britain had fallen by more than half in absolute terms. How did the British government accomplish this and what can the United States learn from the British experience? Jane Waldfogel offers a sharp analysis of the New Labour government’s anti-poverty agenda, its dramatic early success and eventual stalled progress. Comparing Britain’s anti-poverty initiative to U.S. welfare reform, the book shows how the policies of both countries have affected child poverty, living standards, and well-being in low-income families and suggests next steps for future reforms.

Britain’s War on Poverty evaluates the three-pronged anti-poverty strategy employed by the British government and what these efforts accomplished. British reforms sought to promote work and make work pay, to increase financial support for families with children, and to invest in the health, early-life development, and education of children. The latter two features set the British reforms apart from the work-oriented U.S. welfare reforms, which did not specifically target income or program supports for children. Plagued by premature initiatives and what some experts called an overly ambitious agenda, the British reforms fell short of their intended goal but nevertheless significantly increased single-parent employment, raised incomes for low-income families, and improved child outcomes. Poverty has fallen, and the pattern of low-income family expenditures on child enrichment and healthy food has begun to converge with higher-income families.

As Waldfogel sees it, further success in reducing child poverty in Britain will rely on understanding who is poor and who is at highest risk. More than half of poor children live in families where at least one parent is working, followed by unemployed single- and two-parent homes, respectively. Poverty rates are also notably higher for children with disabled parents, large families, and for Pakistani and Bangladeshi children. Based on these demographics, Waldfogel argues that future reforms must, among other goals, raise working-family incomes, provide more work for single parents, and better engage high-risk racial and ethnic minority groups.

What can the United States learn from the British example? Britain’s War on Poverty is a primer in the triumphs and pitfalls of protracted policy. Notable differences distinguish the British and U.S. models, but Waldfogel asserts that a future U.S. poverty agenda must specifically address child poverty and the income inequality that helps create it. By any measurement and despite obstacles, Britain has significantly reduced child poverty. The book’s key lesson is that it can be done.

JANE WALDFOGEL is professor of social work and public affairs at the Columbia University School of Social Work and visiting professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“Old Assumptions, New Realities deserves the attention of welfare analysts and policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the first publications to tackle the future of the American welfare state.”
—SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW 

“[A]n impressive display of imaginative policy analysis that is practical, fact-based, value-laden, and thoughtful. This book is a must-read for sociologists interested in the evolution of new social policies and interested publics who are concerned that too many Americans are facing economic and social catastrophe.”
—CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY 

“Old Assumptions, New Realities brings together an impressive set of scholars offering new perspectives drawn from a rich diversity of disciplines and methods. By highlighting the key assumptions that underlie the U.S. social welfare system and whether these assumptions are appropriate, this book offers important insights on fundamental questions for social policy and research.”
—MARIA CANCIAN, professor of public affairs and social work and research affiliate, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the University of Wisconsin–Madison 

“Ambitious and bold, Old Assumptions, New Realities challenges the reader to think about the huge gap between the old assumptions underlying the American welfare state and the new economic and social realities in which American families and children live. The editors and authors also offer a cornucopia of practical good ideas to narrow the gap.”
—IRWIN GARFINKEL, Mitchell I. Ginsberg Professor of Contemporary Urban Problems and codirector of the Population Research Center, Columbia University 

“Over the past few decades, changes in labor markets and public policies have cast American families into a new era of insecurity. For low-skilled workers, the erosion of wages and paths to advancement has been exacerbated by a growing mismatch between social protections and social needs. How should we understand the new challenges we face, and how can we meet them effectively? Old Assumptions, New Realities is essential reading for anyone who seeks thoughtful and creative answers to these questions. The leading scholars assembled here provide a lucid and compelling analysis of the problem and offer innovative ideas for reform. This is publicly engaged social science at its best—an important intervention in public debate that is rooted in the best available research.”
—JOE SOSS, Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service at the University of Minnesota

The way Americans live and work has changed significantly since the creation of the Social Security Administration in 1935, but U.S. social welfare policy has failed to keep up with these changes. The model of the male breadwinner-led nuclear family has given way to diverse and often complex family structures, more women in the workplace, and nontraditional job arrangements. Old Assumptions, New Realities identifies the tensions between twentieth-century social policy and twenty-first-century realities for working Americans and offers promising new reforms for ensuring social and economic security.

Old Assumptions, New Realities focuses on policy solutions for today’s workers—particularly low-skilled workers and low-income families. Contributor Jacob Hacker makes strong and timely arguments for universal health insurance and universal 401(k) retirement accounts. Michael Stoll argues that job training and workforce development programs can mitigate the effects of declining wages caused by deindustrialization, technological changes, racial discrimination, and other forms of job displacement. Michael Sherraden maintains that wealth-building accounts for children—similar to state college savings plans—and universal and progressive savings accounts for workers can be invaluable strategies for all workers, including the poorest. Jody Heymann and Alison Earle underscore the potential for more extensive work-family policies to help the United States remain competitive in a globalized economy. Finally, Jodi Sandfort suggests that the United States can restructure the existing safety net via state-level reforms but only with a host of coordinated efforts, including better information to service providers, budget analyses, new funding sources, and oversight by intermediary service professionals.

Old Assumptions, New Realities picks up where current policies leave off by examining what’s not working, why, and how the safety net can be redesigned to work better. The book brings much-needed clarity to the process of creating viable policy solutions that benefit all working Americans.

ROBERT D. PLOTNICK is professor of public affairs and adjunct professor of economics at the University of Washington.

MARCIA K. MEYERS is associate professor of social work and public affairs at the University of Washington.

JENNIFER ROMICH is associate professor of social work at the University of Washington.

STEVEN RATHGEB SMITH is Nancy Bell Evans Professor of Public Affairs at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington.

A West Coast Poverty Center Volume

A Volume in the American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology

Winner of the 2012 Academy of Management's George R. Terry Book Award

Winner of the 2013 Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Outstanding Book Award Presented by the American Sociological Association's Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility

"Arne Kalleberg has written the definitive volume on our precarious, polarized U.S. labor market. This engagingly written tour of the American workplace illuminates its subject matter beautifully."
-CHRIS TILLY, director, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UCLA

"Good Jobs, Bad Jobs powerfully documents the profound transformation that the U.S. labor market has undergone since the mid-1970s. In a lucid and compelling analysis, Arne L. Kalleberg exposes the complex dynamics driving the sharp polarization between 'good jobs' and 'bad jobs' as well as the accompanying decline in employment security that has affected workers at all levels. This is a thoughtful book that is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the situation of workers in twenty-first- century America."
-RUTH MILKMAN, professor of sociology, CUNY Graduate Center and the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies

The economic boom of the 1990s veiled a grim reality: in addition to the growing gap between rich and poor, the gap between good and bad quality jobs was also expanding. The postwar prosperity of the mid-twentieth century had enabled millions of American workers to join the middle class, but as author Arne L. Kalleberg shows, by the 1970s this upward movement had slowed, in part due to the steady disappearance of secure, well-paying industrial jobs. Ever since, precarious employment has been on the rise—paying low wages, offering few benefits, and with virtually no long-term security. Today, the polarization between workers with higher skill levels and those with low skills and low wages is more entrenched than ever. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs traces this trend to large-scale transformations in the American labor market and the changing demographics of low-wage workers. Kalleberg draws on nearly four decades of survey data, as well as his own research, to evaluate trends in U.S. job quality and suggest ways to improve American labor market practices and social policies.

Good Jobs, Bad Jobs provides an insightful analysis of how and why precarious employment is gaining ground in the labor market and the role these developments have played in the decline of the middle class. Kalleberg shows that by the 1970s, government deregulation, global competition, and the rise of the service sector gained traction, while institutional protections for workers—such as unions and minimum-wage legislation—weakened. Together, these forces marked the end of postwar security for American workers. The composition of the labor force also changed significantly; the number of dual-earner families increased, as did the share of the workforce comprised of women, non-white, and immigrant workers. Of these groups, blacks, Latinos, and immigrants remain concentrated in the most precarious and low-quality jobs, with educational attainment being the leading indicator of who will earn the highest wages and experience the most job security and highest levels of autonomy and control over their jobs and schedules. Kalleberg demonstrates, however, that building a better safety net—increasing government responsibility for worker health care and retirement, as well as strengthening unions—can go a long way toward redressing the effects of today’s volatile labor market.

There is every reason to expect that the growth of precarious jobs—which already make up a significant share of the American job market—will continue. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs deftly shows that the decline in U.S. job quality is not the result of fluctuations in the business cycle, but rather the result of economic restructuring and the disappearance of institutional protections for workers. Only government, employers and labor working together on long-term strategies—including an expanded safety net, strengthened legal protections, and better training opportunities—can help reverse this trend.

ARNE L. KALLEBERG is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“This impressive inter-disciplinary study by leading experts is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand why and how standard employment contracts are declining in advanced industrial societies, and who wants to consider the plausibility of the many new approaches to labour regulation that are emerging.”
—PROFESSOR SIR BOB HEPPLE QC BA, Hon President of the Industrial Law Society

“Few would quarrel with the fact that workplace regulations in the United Sates and other advanced industrialized countries were designed for a workforce and labor market that no longer exist. Yet, it is much less clear what should be put in pace of those outdated regulations. Rethinking Workplace Regulation provides much helpful advice regarding the nature of the problem and innovative solutions. It is a must read.”
—HARRY C. KATZ, Kenneth F. Kahn Dean and Jack Sheinkman Professor, ILR School, Cornell University

During the middle third of the twentieth century, workers in most industrialized countries secured a substantial measure of job security, whether through legislation, contract or social practice. This “standard employment contract,” as it was known, became the foundation of an impressive array of rights and entitlements, including social insurance and pensions, protection against unsociable working conditions, and the right to bargain collectively. Recent changes in technology and the global economy, however, have dramatically eroded this traditional form of employment. Employers now value flexibility over stability, and increasingly hire employees for short-term or temporary work. Many countries have also repealed labor laws, relaxed employee protections, and reduced state-provided benefits. As the old system of worker protection declines, how can labor regulation be improved to protect workers? In Rethinking Workplace Regulation, nineteen leading scholars from ten countries and half a dozen disciplines present a sweeping tour of the latest policy experiments across the world that attempt to balance worker security and the new flexible employment paradigm.

Edited by noted socio-legal scholars Katherine V.W. Stone and Harry Arthurs, Rethinking Workplace Regulation presents case studies on new forms of dispute resolution, job training programs, social insurance and collective representation that could serve as policy models in the contemporary industrialized world. The volume leads with an intriguing set of essays on legal attempts to update the employment contract. For example, Bruno Caruso reports on efforts in the European Union to “constitutionalize” employment and other contracts to better preserve protective principles for workers and to extend their legal impact. The volume then turns to the field of labor relations, where promising regulatory strategies have emerged. Sociologist Jelle Visser offers a fresh assessment of the Dutch version of the ‘flexicurity’ model, which attempts to balance the rise in nonstandard employment with improved social protection by indexing the minimum wage and strengthening rights of access to health insurance, pensions, and training. Sociologist Ida Regalia provides an engaging account of experimental local and regional “pacts” in Italy and France that allow several employers to share temporary workers, thereby providing workers job security within the group rather than with an individual firm. The volume also illustrates the power of governments to influence labor market institutions. Legal scholars John Howe and Michael Rawling discuss Australia's innovative legislation on supply chains that holds companies at the top of the supply chain responsible for employment law violations of their subcontractors. Contributors also analyze ways in which more general social policy is being renegotiated in light of the changing nature of work. Kendra Strauss, a geographer, offers a wide-ranging comparative analysis of pension systems and calls for a new model that offers “flexible pensions for flexible workers.”

With its ambitious scope and broad inquiry, Rethinking Workplace Regulation illustrates the diverse innovations countries have developed to confront the policy challenges created by the changing nature of work. The experiments evaluated in this volume will provide inspiration and instruction for policymakers and advocates seeking to improve worker’s lives in this latest era of global capitalism.

KATHERINE V.W. STONE is Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Professor of Law at University of California, Los Angeles.

HARRY ARTHURS is former Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School and University Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus of York University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Takashi Araki, Thomas Bredgaard, Cesar G. Canton,  Bruno Caruso,  Consuelo Chacartegui, Alexander J.S. Colvin,  Mark Freedland,  Morley Gunderson,  Thomas Haipeter, John Howe,  Robert Kuttner,  Julia Lopez,  Keisuke Nakamura,  Michio Nitta,  Anthony O'Donnell, Michael Rawling,  Ida Regalia, Kendra Strauss,  Julie C. Suk,  Jelle Visser. 

“This is an extremely interesting book. By now, many of us think we are already familiar with the basic causes of the financial crisis, but Rethinking the Financial Crisis will change our thinking. It is backed by a broad array of carefully researched facts and theoretical structure.”
—ROBERT J. SHILLER , Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Yale University

“As well as its consequences for the economy, the financial crisis has left an indelible mark on the way that economists approach their subject. Our understanding of the crisis is still evolving, but this thought-provoking book provides a welcome opportunity to take stock of how far we have come. The chapters—all written by the leaders in their field— provide a sweeping overview, from the origins of the crisis to its consequences for the economy and the wider lessons to be learned in order not to repeat past mistakes. Rethinking the Financial Crisis is required reading for those who wish to keep up to date on the journey that economics and economists are taking in the wake of the crisis.”
—HYUN SONG SHIN, Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics, Princeton University

Some economic events are so major and unsettling that they “change everything.” Such is the case with the financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 and is still a drag on the world economy. Yet enough time has now elapsed for economists to consider questions that run deeper than the usual focus on the immediate causes and consequences of the crisis. How have these stunning events changed our thinking about the role of the financial system in the economy, about the costs and benefits of financial innovation, about the efficiency of financial markets, and about the role the government should play in regulating finance? In Rethinking the Financial Crisis, some of the nation’s most renowned economists share their assessments of particular aspects of the crisis and reconsider the way we think about the financial system and its role in the economy.

In its wide-ranging inquiry into the financial crash, Rethinking the Financial Crisis marshals an impressive collection of rigorous and yet empirically-relevant research that, in some respects, upsets the conventional wisdom about the crisis and also opens up new areas for exploration. Two separate chapters–by Burton G. Malkiel and by Hersh Shefrin and Meir Statman – debate whether the facts of the financial crisis upend the efficient market hypothesis and require a more behavioral account of financial market performance. To build a better bridge between the study of finance and the “real” economy of production and employment, Simon Gilchrist and Egan Zakrasjek take an innovative measure of financial stress and embed it in a model of the U.S. economy to assess how disruptions in financial markets affect economic activity—and how the Federal Reserve might do monetary policy better. The volume also examines the crucial role of financial innovation in the evolution of the pre-crash financial system. Thomas Philippon documents the huge increase in the size of the financial services industry relative to real GDP, and also the increasing cost per financial transaction. He suggests that the finance industry of 1900 was just as able to produce loans, bonds, and stocks as its modern counterpart—and it did so more cheaply. Robert Jarrow looks in detail at some of the major types of exotic securities developed by financial engineers, such as collateralized debt obligations and credit-default swaps, reaching judgments on which make the real economy more efficient and which do not. The volume’s final section turns explicitly to regulatory matters. Robert Litan discusses the political economy of financial regulation before and after the crisis. He reviews the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which he considers an imperfect but useful response to a major breakdown in market and regulatory discipline.

At a time when the financial sector continues to be a source of considerable controversy, Rethinking the Financial Crisis addresses important questions about the complex workings of American finance and shows how the study of economics needs to change to deepen our understanding of the indispensable but risky role that the financial system plays in modern economies.

ALAN S. BLINDER is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

ANDREW W. LO is Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at M.I.T.

ROBERT M. SOLOW is Institute Professor, Emeritus, at M.I.T.

CONTRIBUTORS:  Ben S. Bernanke,  Patrick Bolton,  J. Bradford DeLong,  Christopher L. Foote,  Kristopher S. Gerardi, Simon G. Gilchrist,  John Hull,  Robert A. Jarrow,  Robert E. Litan,  Burton G. Malkiel,  Kevin J. Murphy,  Thomas Philippon,  Tano Santon,  Jose A. Scheinkman, Hersh Shefrin,  Meir Statman,  Alan White,  Paul S. Willen,  Egon Zakrajsek.