Beginning in the 1990s immigrants to the United States have increasingly moved away from the traditional gateway cities and begun settling in new destinations.
We can summarize the fundamental findings of modern behavioral economics as a small set of what have come to be called “behavioral biases.” These biases are systematic departures from rational norms that many people exhibit in the face of economic decisions. For example, “present bias” refers to one’s difficulty in postponing immediate returns.
The recent financial crisis, brought about in part by high levels of consumer debt and mortgage delinquency, has provided a particularly dramatic example of the commonplace fact that consumer financial decision-making is often flawed. Although there are laws in place requiring full disclosure of information regarding financial products, it is apparent that disclosure is frequently not enough to help consumers make sound decisions. Consumers may be confused by the length and complexity of a contract.
Books
Reaching for a New Deal
Ambitious Governance, Economic Meltdown, and Polarized Politics in Obama's First Two Years
About This Book
"This is social science at its best, using the insights of the academy to help shed light on contemporary politics. In this collection, some of the nation's best political scientists offer a powerful look at the first years of the Obama presidency. This balanced and thoughtful book provides a wonderful analysis of the institutional and organizational contexts within which this administration has operated, as well as the strategic choices that enabled Obama to build a sizable legislative record. Reaching for a New Deal helps us understand how the president was able to craft so much ambitious legislation even as the political atmosphere became more polarized with each passing day. Through Obama, we learn more about why parties can make progress in some areas of policy despite institutional obstacles but not others. A must read for anyone interested in a serious look at contemporary politics."
-JULIAN E. ZELIZER, professor of history and public affairs, Princeton University
"A remarkable volume. Assembling a star-studded crew of politically attuned policy experts, Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol have produced the best comprehensive assessment of President Obama's tumultuous and eventful first two years. It's all here: from the controversial health care and financial reform bills to the unsuccessful drives for climate-change legislation and labor law reform to the largely hidden changes achieved through presidential administrative action and unpublicized provisions of the 2009 economic recovery package. More important, it's all explained clearly, judiciously, and deeply. This is real-time political science at its finest."
-JACOB S. HACKER, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University
During his winning presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to counter rising economic inequality and revitalize America’s middle-class through a series of wide-ranging reforms. His transformational agenda sought to ensure affordable healthcare; reform the nation’s schools and make college more affordable; promote clean and renewable energy; reform labor laws and immigration; and redistribute the tax burden from the middle class to wealthier citizens. The Wall Street crisis and economic downturn that erupted as Obama took office also put U.S. financial regulation on the agenda. By the middle of President Obama’s first term in office, he had succeeded in advancing major reforms by legislative and administrative means. But a sluggish economic recovery from the deep recession of 2009, accompanied by polarized politics and governmental deadlock in Washington, DC, have raised questions about how far Obama’s promised transformations can go. Reaching for a New Deal analyzes both the ambitious domestic policy of Obama’s first two years and the consequent political backlash—up to and including the 2010 midterm elections.
Reaching for a New Deal opens by assessing how the Obama administration overcame intense partisan struggles to achieve legislative victories in three areas—health care reform, federal higher education loans and grants, and financial regulation. Lawrence Jacobs and Theda Skocpol examine the landmark health care bill, signed into law in spring 2010, which extended affordable health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans after nearly 100 years of failed legislative attempts to do so. Suzanne Mettler explains how Obama succeeded in reorienting higher education policy by shifting loan administration from lenders to the federal government and extending generous tax tuition credits. Reaching for a New Deal also examines the domains in which Obama has used administrative action to further reforms in schools and labor law. The book concludes with examinations of three areas—energy, immigration, and taxes—where Obama’s efforts at legislative compromises made little headway.
Reaching for a New Deal combines probing analyses of Obama’s domestic policy achievements with a big picture look at his change-oriented presidency. The book uses struggles over policy changes as a window into the larger dynamics of American politics and situates the current political era in relation to earlier pivotal junctures in U.S. government and public policy. It offers invaluable lessons about unfolding political transformations in the United States.
THEDA SKOCPOL is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University.
LAWRENCE R. JACOBS is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota.
CONTRIBUTORS: Andrea Louise Campbell, Daniel Carpenter, Judith A. Layzer, Lorraine M. McDonnell, Suzanne Mettler, John D. Skrentny, Dorian T. Warren.
RSF Journal
View Book Series
Sign Up For Our Mailing List
Apply For Funding
Standard economic approaches to the regulation of retail finance assume that consumers are capable of understanding the terms of financial contracts and choosing only those that maximize their self-interest. On this assumption, the regulatory burden is largely satisfied by mandating full disclosure, as the Truth in Lending Act has long required.
Studies indicate an alarming increase in the population of homeless persons in America, with numbers exceeding emergency shelter and transitional housing spaces in cities across the nation. A recent study conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found 23 percent of all requests for emergency shelter went unmet due to lack of resources. For families, the numbers are even worse: 29 percent of emergency shelter requests from families were denied. Changes in the U.S.
Over the last forty years there have been notable changes in household and family structure: increased international and domestic migration has led to a decline in extended family ties and an increase in diversity; increases in divorce and single childbearing have led to larger numbers of single parent households; longer life spans, coupled with the decline in extended family, have resulted in large numbers of elderly living alone or in assisted living; and the movement of women into the workforce has created the need for more childcare services.
Was the long-term—and ongoing—rise in household income inequality a contributor to the recent financial crisis and subsequent recession? This is the question Matthew Drennan of UCLA proposes to explore in his analysis of changes in household income, consumption, assets, and liabilities during the period from 1984 to 2008. To frame his analysis, Drennan points to a number of substantive shifts in household economic characteristics over the past several decades. In addition to the rise in U.S.
Supplemental Appropriation 2010--$5,000
In 2009, the Russell Sage Foundation funded the research project “Cross-National Research on the Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage” (CRITA).
The undocumented immigrant population in the United States grew from approximately four million at the time of the last major immigration reform in 1986 to an estimated 12 million in 2008. In the absence of new immigration reform at the federal level, some states have created their own interior enforcement mechanisms to deter the employment of undocumented immigrants. Arizona’s Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) is perhaps the most restrictive of those state efforts.