"For Better and For Worse is an important contribution to the field of social policy. Greg J. Duncan and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale have incorporated the work of some of the best researchers and policy analysts on poverty and welfare in the country. The net result is the most authoritative volume to date on the impact of welfare reform on children and families in the United States."
-WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University

"For Better or Worse provides a much-needed description of how children are faring since the welfare reforms of the 1990s. Perhaps even more important is the focus on family's responses to various policy packages being implemented across the country. The volume is a perfect blend of economic, sociological, and psychological perspectives on child policy and well- being."
-JEANNE BROOKS-GUNN, Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

The 1996 welfare reform bill marked the beginning of a new era in public assistance. Although the new law has reduced welfare rolls, falling caseloads do not necessarily mean a better standard of living for families. In For Better and For Worse, editors Greg J. Duncan and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and a roster of distinguished experts examine the evidence and evaluate whether welfare reform has met one of its chief goals-improving the well-being of the nation's poor children.

For Better and For Worse opens with a lively political history of the welfare reform legislation, which demonstrates how conservative politicians capitalize on public concern over such social problems as single parenthood to win support for the radical reforms. Part I reviews how individual states redesigned, implemented, and are managing their welfare systems. These chapters show that most states appear to view maternal employment, rather that income enhancement and marriage, as key to improving child well-being. Part II focuses on national and multistate evaluations of the changes in welfare to examine how families and children are actually faring under the new system. These chapters suggest that work-focused reforms have not hurt children, and that reforms that provide financial support for working families can actually enhance children's development. Part III presents a variety of perspectives on policy options for the future. Remarkable here is the common ground for both liberals and conservatives on the need to support work and at the same time strengthen safety-net programs such as Food Stamps.

Although welfare reform-along with the Earned Income Tax Credit and the booming economy of the nineties-has helped bring mothers into the labor force and some children out of poverty, the nation still faces daunting challenges in helping single parents become permanent members of the workforce. For Better and For Worse gathers the most recent data on the effects of welfare reform in one timely volume focused on improving the life chances of poor children.

GREG J. DUNCAN is professor of economics in the School of Education and Social Policy and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

P. LINDSAY CHASE-LANSDALE is professor of developmental psychology in the School of Education and Social Policy and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

CONTRIBUTORS: P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Greg J. Duncan, David M. Casey, Danielle A. Crosby, Sandra K. Danziger, Kristina Daugirdas, Rachel E. Dunifon, Kathryn Edin, Paula England, Nancy Folbre, Thomas L. Gais, Ron Haskins, Ann E. Horvath-Rose, Aletha C. Huston, Cathy M. Johnson, Ariel Kalil, Andrew S. London, Joan Maya Mazelis, Rashmita S. Mistry, Kristin Anderson Moore, H. Elizabeth Peters, Wendell Primus, Marika N. Ripke, Jennifer L. Romich, Ellen K. Scott, Jack Tweedie, Morgan B. Ward Doran, Alan Weil, Thomas S. Weisner, and W. Jean Young.

"The Consequences of Growing Up Poor is an essential tool for researchers and those who make decisions about child and family policy. It is well organized, clearly written, and provides useful information that can enhance the lives of America's children and families."
-JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

One in five American children now live in families with incomes below the povertyline, and their prospects are not bright. Low income is statistically linked with a variety of poor outcomes for children, from low birth weight and poor nutrition in infancy to increased chances of academic failure, emotional distress, and unwed childbirth in adolescence. To address these problems it is not enough to know that money makes a difference; we need to understand how. Consequences of Growing Up Poor is an extensive and illuminating examination of the paths through which economic deprivation damages children at all stages of their development.

In Consequences of Growing Up Poor, developmental psychologists, economists, and sociologists revisit a large body of studies to answer specific questions about how low income puts children at risk intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Many of their investigations demonstrate that although income clearly creates disadvantages, it does so selectively and in a wide variety of ways. Low-income preschoolers exhibit poorer cognitive and verbal skills because they are generally exposed to fewer toys, books, and other stimulating experiences in the home. Poor parents also tend to rely on home-based child care, where the quality and amount of attention children receive is inferior to that of professional facilities. In later years, conflict between economically stressed parents increases anxiety and weakens self-esteem in their teenaged children.

Although they share economic hardships, the home lives of poor children are not homogenous. Consequences of Growing Up Poor investigates whether such family conditions as the marital status, education, and involvement of parents mitigate the ill effects of poverty. Consequences of Growing Up Poor also looks at the importance of timing: Does being poor have a different impact on preschoolers, children, and adolescents? When are children most vulnerable to poverty? Some contributors find that poverty in the prenatal or early childhood years appears to be particularly detrimental to cognitive development and physical health. Others offer evidence that lower income has a stronger negative effect during adolescence than in childhood or adulthood.

Based on their findings, the editors and contributors to Consequences of Growing Up Poor recommend more sharply focused child welfare policies targeted to specific eras and conditions of poor children's lives. They also weigh the relative need for income supplements, child care subsidies, and home interventions. Consequences of Growing Up Poor describes the extent and causes of hardships for poor children, defines the interaction between income and family, and offers solutions to improve young lives.

JEANNE BROOKS-GUNN is Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also director of the Center for Young Children and Families, and co-directs the Adolescent Study Program at Teachers College.

GREG J. DUNCAN is professor of education and social policy and a faculty associate in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Terry Adams, William Axinn, Bernard Boulerice, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Karen P. Carver, Katherine Jewsbury Conger, Rand D. Conger, Mary Corcoran, Randal D. Day, Greg J. Duncan, Glen H. Elder, Jr., Thomas L. Hanson, Robert M. Hauser, Robert Haveman, Donald J. Hernandez, Pamela K. Klebanov, Sanders Korenman, Ellen L. Lipman, Nancy Maritato, Susan E. Mayer, Sara S. McLanahan, Jane E. Miller, Natalie C. Mullis, The National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD), David R. Offord, Linda Pagani, Kathleen M. Paasch, H. Elizabeth Peters, Judith R. Smith, Megan M. Sweeney, Jay D. Teachman, Elizabeth Thomson, Arland Thornton, Richard E. Tremblay, Kathryn Wilson, and Barbara Wolfe.

Winner of the 2007 Richard A. Lester Prize for Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations

"[Higher Ground] is valuable for what it tells us not only about strategies to fight poverty, but also about how to generate evidence on strategies to fight poverty."
-INDUSTRIAL & LABOR RELATIONS REVIEW

"Higher Ground describes the results from the New Hope demonstration project in Milwaukee, one of the most creative social experiments of the past twenty- five years. It tells how New Hope was designed to help participants move into jobs, retain health insurance, and find effective child care. While not all the results of the program were positive, they do show that good policies can make a difference in providing economic stability to low-income families. The les sons from New Hope, described in this book, should be part the current public discussion. This is a book that students, researchers, and policy analysts will all find useful."
-REBECCA M. BLANK, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

"New Hope was an ambitious experiment in helping the poor and near-poor. Higher Ground brings out its full significance and potential, especially by showing the effects on families and children. Greg J. Duncan, Aletha C. Huston, and Thomas S. Weisner make visible what rebuilding the welfare state around employment might mean."
-LAWRENCE M. MEAD, professor of politics, New York University

"Higher Ground puts the word 'hope' back into the debate about poverty, offering compelling evidence that government can make a difference in the lives of the poor. While others sought to 'end welfare as we know it,' the architects of New Hope had a grander vision, to end poverty as we know it. New Hope restored dignity and rewarded work, and its impact extended to the next generation."
-KATHRYN EDIN, visiting professor of public policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

During the 1990s, growing demands to end chronic welfare dependency culminated in the 1996 federal “welfare-to-work” reforms. But regardless of welfare reform, the United States has always been home to a large population of working poor—people who remain poor even when they work and do not receive welfare. In a concentrated effort to address the problems of the working poor, a coalition of community activists and business leaders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, launched New Hope, an experimental program that boosted employment among the city’s poor while reducing poverty and improving children’s lives. In Higher Ground, Greg Duncan, Aletha Huston, and Thomas Weisner provide a compelling look at how New Hope can serve as a model for national anti-poverty policies.

New Hope was a social contract—not a welfare program—in which participants were required to work a minimum of thirty hours a week in order to be eligible for earnings supplements and health and child care subsidies. All participants had access to career counseling and temporary community service jobs. Drawing on evidence from surveys, public records of employment and earnings, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic observation, Higher Ground tells the story of this ambitious three-year social experiment and evaluates how participants fared relative to a control group. The results were highly encouraging. Poverty rates declined among families that participated in the program. Employment and earnings increased among participants who were not initially working full-time, relative to their counterparts in a control group. For those who had faced just one significant barrier to employment (such as a lack of access to child care or a spotty employment history), these gains lasted years after the program ended. Increased income, combined with New Hope’s subsidies for child care and health care, brought marked improvements to the well-being and development of participants’ children. Enrollment in child care centers increased, and fewer medical needs went unmet. Children performed better in school and exhibited fewer behavioral problems, and gains were particularly dramatic for boys, who are at the greatest risk for poor academic performance and behavioral disorders.

As America takes stock of the successes and shortcomings of the Clinton-era welfare reforms, the authors convincingly demonstrate why New Hope could be a model for state and national policies to assist the working poor. Evidence based and insightfully written, Higher Ground illuminates how policymakers can make work pay for families struggling to escape poverty.

GREG J. DUNCAN is the Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research.

ALETHA C. HUSTON is the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Child Development in the department of human ecology at the University of Texas, Austin and associate director of the Population Research Center.

THOMAS S. WEISNER is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"As long as individuals continue to enter or desire admission to the United States, immigration will always be an issue that incites lively and controversial debates. Deaux brilliantly provides the first comprehensive text addressing immigration using a systematic social-psychological approach .... She skillfully presents and reviews scholarship that addresses both broad-level issues pertaining to policy and attitudes toward immigrants as well as micro-level issues such as ethnic identity, acculturation, and the immigrant's experience."
-ANALYSES OF SOCIAL ISSUES AND PUBLIC POLICY

"At last, we have a definitive social psychological treatment of American immigration. Kay Deaux's outstanding work is essential reading for all who care about this critical issue."
-THOMAS PETTIGREW, Research Professor of Social Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

"To Be an Immigrant offers a penetrating psychological treatment of immigrant adaptation and integration that is very welcome and long overdue. Although scholars have traditionally studied the social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions of immigration, Kay Deaux reminds us that assimilation has important psychological dimensions as well. Immigration researchers need to pay close attention to this book to incorporate psychological insights into the models of immigrant behavior they construct."
-DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

"The migration of people within and between countries presents the world with one of the most urgent challenges of the twenty-first century. To help meet that challenge, an informed social science of the causes and consequences of migration will surely be needed. In Kay Deaux's wonderful book we have an important contribution to such migration studies. It combines a dispassionate and incisive analysis with a humane and interdisciplinary perspective, and it is elegantly and lucidly written."
-RUPERT BROWN, professor of social psychology, University of Sussex

Immigration is often discussed in broad, statistical terms, with a focus on how it affects labor markets, schools, and social services. But at its most basic level, immigration is a process that affects people and their identities in deeply personal ways. In To Be an Immigrant, social psychologist Kay Deaux explores the role of both social conditions and individual capacities in determining how well immigrants adapt to life in their new homelands, and makes a strong case for the relevance of social psychology in immigration studies.

To Be an Immigrant looks at how immigrants are defined, shaped, and challenged by the cultural environment they encounter in their new country and offers an integrated psychological framework for studying the immigrant experience. Deaux argues that in addition to looking at macro-level factors like public policies and social conditions and micro-level issues like individual choices, immigration scholars should also study influences that occur on an intermediate level, such as interpersonal encounters. Each of these three levels of analysis is essential to understanding how immigrants adapt to a new homeland and form distinct identities. As a case study for her framework, Deaux examines West Indians, exploring their perceptions of the stereotypes they face in the United States and their feelings of connection to their new home. Though race plays a limited role in the West Indies, it becomes more relevant to migrants once they arrive in the United States, where they are primarily identified by others as black, rather than Guyanese or Jamaican. Deaux’s research adds to a growing literature in social psychology on stereotype threat, which suggests that negative stereotypes about one’s group can hinder an individual’s performance. She finds that immigrants who have been in the United States longer and identify themselves as African American suffer from the negative effects of stereotype threat more than recent immigrants.
 
More than a discrete event, immigration can be understood as a life-long process that continues to affect people well after they have migrated. To Be an Immigrant takes a novel approach to the study of immigration, looking at how societal influences help shape immigrants and their understanding of who they are.

KAY DEAUX is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the Graduate Center,  City University of New York.

"One of the best collections of papers to come my way in a long time on improving programs aimed at cultivating opportunities for children. It is a treasure trove for academics and policy makers."
-Frank Furstenberg Jr., University of Pennsylvania

"Sheldon Danziger and Jane Waldfogel have given us an exciting new framework for thinking about the reproduction of poverty and have brought together some of the most insightful minds in economics, sociology, and developmental psychology to tell us what to do."
-Sara S. McLanahan, Princeton University

More than ever, the economic health of a country depends upon the skills, knowledge, and capacities of its people. How does a person acquire these human assets and how can we promote their development? Securing the Future assembles an interdisciplinary team of scholars to investigate the full range of factors—pediatric, psychological, social, and economic—that bear on a child's development into a well-adjusted, economically productive member of society. A central purpose of the volume is to identify sound interventions that will boost human assets, particularly among the disadvantaged. The book provides a comprehensive evaluation of current initiatives and offers a wealth of new suggestions for effective public and private investments in child development.

While children from affluent, highly educated families have good quality child care and an expensive education provided for them, children from poor families make do with informal child care and a public school system that does not always meet their needs. How might we best redress this growing imbalance? The contributors to this volume recommend policies that treat academic attainment together with psychological development and social adjustment. Mentoring programs, for example, promote better school performance by first fostering a young person's motivation to learn. Investments made early in life, such as preschool education, are shown to have the greatest impact on later learning for the least cost.

In their focus upon children, however, the authors do not neglect the important links between generations. Poverty and inequality harm the development of parents and children alike. Interventions that empower parents to fight for better services and better schools are also of great benefit to their children.

Securing the Future shows how investments in child development are both a means to an end and an end in themselves. They benefit the child directly and they also help that child contribute to the well-being of society. This book points us toward more effective strategies for promoting the economic success and the social cohesion of future generations.

SHELDON DANZIGER is Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy and co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.
 
JANE WALDFOGEL is professor of social work and public affairs at the Columbia University School of Social Work and research associate at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics.

CONTRIBUTORS: Debra Donahoe, Jacquelynne S. Eccles,  James J. Jeckman,  Robert S. Kahn,  Thomas J. Kane,  Lance Lochner,  Lisa M. Lynch,  Melvin L. Oliver,  Hillard Pouncy,  Craig T. Ramey,  Sharon Landesman Ramey,  Robert J. Sampson,  Margaret Beale Spencer, Dena Phillips Swanson,  Marta Tienda,  Allan Wigfield,  Barry Zuckerman, M.D.

A Volume in the Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building

Inequality has been on the rise in America for more than two decades. This socially divisive trend began in the economic doldrums of the 1970s and continued through the booming 1980s, when surging economic tides clearly failed to lift all ships. Instead, escalating inequality in both individual earnings and family income widened the gulf between rich and poor and led to the much-publicized decline of the middle class. Uneven Tides brings together a distinguished group of economists to confront the crucial questions about this unprecedented rise in inequality. Just how large and pervasive was it? What were its principal causes? And why did it continue in the 1980s, when previous periods of national economic growth have generally reduced inequality?

Reviewing the best current evidence, the essays in Uneven Tides show that rising inequality is a complex phenomenon, the result of a web of circumstances inherent in the nation's current industrial, social, and political situation. Once attributed to the rising supply of inexperienced workers—as baby boomers, new immigrants, and women entered the labor market—the growing inequality in individual earnings is revealed in Uneven Tides to be the direct result of the economy's increasing demand for skilled workers. The authors explore many of the possible causes of this trend, including the employment shift from manufacturing to the service sector, the heightened importance of technology in the workplace, the decline of unionization, and the intensified efforts to compete in a global marketplace. Uneven Tides also examines the equally dramatic growth in the inequality of family income, and reviews the effects of family size, the age and education of household heads, and the transition to both two-earner and single-parent families. Although these demographic shifts played a role, what emerges most clearly is an understanding of the powerful influence of public policy, as increasingly regressive taxes, declining welfare benefits, and a stagnant minimum wage continue to amplify the effects of market forces on income.

With the rise in inequality now much in the headlines, it is clear that our nation's ability to reverse these shifting currents requires deeper understanding of their causes and consequences. Uneven Tides is the first book to get beyond the news stories to a clear analysis of the changing fortunes of America's families. It should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in the economic underpinnings of the country's social problems.

SHELDON DANZIGER is professor of social work and public policy and faculty associate in population studies at the University of Michigan.

PETER GOTTSCHALK is professor of economics at Boston College, and research affiliate at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin.

"This book demonstrates how we can make substantial progress in the fight against educational failure, family dissolution, violent crime, substance abuse, unemployment, and poverty. It also shows that to do so we must insist that social programs produce demonstrable results and that demonstrably successful programs are replicated across the country. Social Programs that Work is one of the most encouraging and important public policy books written in recent years. Policy makers, educators, parents, everyone who cares about our children and our society should read it."
-CONGRESSMAN RICHARD A. GEPHARDT

"This book offers a powerful antidote to the nihilistic, 'nothing works' mentality that pervades much of the discussion of social policy today. It evidences a candid, rigorous, and often skeptical search for programs that pass a high threshold for impact and credibility. Each program is presented and examined with care and clarity. Social Programs that Work not only offers essential evidence that some programs really ought to be expanded, it also illustrates how rigorous evaluation can allow a nation to learn about and expand those special programs that really do make a difference. Anyone looking for ways to fight our social ills should read this book."
-DAVID ELLWOOD, Harvard University

Many Americans seem convinced that government programs designed to help the poor have failed. Social Programs That Work shows that this is not true. Many programs have demonstrably improved the lives of people trapped at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. Social Programs That Work provides an in-depth look at some of the nation's best interventions over the past few decades, and considers their potential for national expansion.

Examined here are programs designed to improve children's reading skills, curb juvenile delinquency and substance abuse, and move people off welfare into the workforce. Each contributor discusses the design and implementation of a particular program, and assesses how well particular goals were met. Among the critical issues addressed: Are good results permanent, or do they fade over time? Can they be replicated successfully under varied conditions? Are programs cost effective, and if so are the benefits seen immediately or only over the long term? How can public support be garnered for a large upfront investment whose returns may not be apparent for years? Some programs discussed in this volume were implemented only on a small, experimental scale, prompting discussion of their viability at the national level.

An important concern for social policy is whether one-shot programs can lead to permanent results. Early interventions may be extremely effective at reducing future criminal behavior, as shown by the results of the High/Scope Perry preschool program. Evidence from the Life Skills Training Program suggests that a combination of initial intervention and occasional booster sessions can be an inexpensive and successful approach to reducing adolescent substance abuse. Social Programs That Work also acknowledges that simply placing welfare recipients in jobs isn't enough; they will also need long-term support to maintain those jobs.

The successes and failures of social policy over the last thirty-five years have given us valuable feedback about the design of successful social policy. Social Programs That Work represents a landmark attempt to use social science criteria to identify and strengthen the programs most likely to make a real difference in addressing the nation's social ills.

JONATHAN CRANE is director of the National Center for Research on Social Programs in Chicago, Illinois.

CONTRIBUTORS: Clancy Blair, Gilbert J. Bovin, Frances A. Campbell, Patricia Chamberlain, Barbara Devaney, Marcella Dianda, Lawrence J. Dolan, Phyllis L. Ellickson, George Farkas, Nancy A. Madden, Lawrence M. Mead, Kevin Moore, Craig T. Ramey, Arthur J. Reynolds, Steven M. Ross, Lawrence J. Schweinhart, Robert E. Slavin, Lana J. Smith, Barbara A. Wasik, David P. Weikart.

"Perhaps the greatest social science debate as we move into the twenty-first century is the changing nature of the American family, and all the consequences of these changes. Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society is one of the few books that takes a non-politically correct view of these changes. Using research on black fathers as data, the work presents an academic view of the difficult relationships between men and women, who benefits from such relationships, and the differences in socioeconomic categories. This work should set the standard and be a reference for all research in the area of marriage and the family."
-JOHN SIBLEY BUTLER, professor of sociology and management, The University of Texas at Austin

"Fathers must be brought back into the picture, especially in a social context in which a huge absolute percentage of black families are single-parent, female-headed households and in which African Americans, especially young black men, face an alarmingly high lifetime probability of incarceration. Both the research and policymaking communities should sift carefully through this important set of studies, which make a vital contribution to filling the enormous gap in our thinking about African American fathers and families."
-LAWRENCE D. BOBO, Norman Tishman and Charles M. Diker Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Harvard University, from the foreword of Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society

The majority of African American children live in homes without their fathers, but the proportion of African American children living in intact, two-parent families has risen significantly since 1995. Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society looks at father absence from two sides, offering an in-depth analysis of how the absence of African American fathers affects their children, their relationships, and society as a whole, while countering the notion that father absence and family fragmentation within the African American community is inevitable.

Editors Obie Clayton, Ronald B. Mincy, and David Blankenhorn lead a diverse group of contributors encompassing a range of disciplines and ideological perspectives who all agree that father absence among black families is one of the most pressing social problems today. In part I, the contributors offer possible explanations for the decline in marriage among African American families. William Julius Wilson believes that many men who live in the inner city no longer consider marriage an option because their limited economic prospects do not enable them to provide for a family. Part II considers marriage from an economic perspective, emphasizing that it is in part a wealth-producing institution. Maggie Gallagher points out that married people earn, invest, and save more than single people, and that when marriage rates are low in a community, it is the children who suffer most. In part III, the contributors discuss policies to reduce absentee fatherhood. Wornie Reed demonstrates how public health interventions, such as personal development workshops and work-related skill-building services, can be used to address the causes of fatherlessness. Wade Horn illustrates the positive results achieved by fatherhood programs, especially when held early in a man's life. In the last chapter, Enola Aird notes that from 1995 to 2000, the proportion of African American children living in two-parent, married couple homes rose from 34.8 to 38.9 percent; a significant increase indicating the possible reversal of the long-term shift toward black family fragmentation.

Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society provides an in-depth look at a problem affecting millions of children while offering proof that the trend of father absence is not irrevocable.

OBIE CLAYTON is professor and chair of the Sociology Department at Morehouse College and executive director of the Morehouse Research Institute.

RONALD B. MINCY is the Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice at the School of Social Work, Columbia University.

DAVID BLANKENHORN is president of the Institute for American Values.

CONTRIBUTORS: Enola G. Aird, David Blankenhorn, Lawrence D. Bobo, Obie Clayton, Maggie Gallagher, Wade F. Horn, Ronald B. Mincy, Joan W. Moore, Barbara Morrison-Rodriguez, Steven L. Nock, Hillard Pouncy, Wornie L. Reed, and William Julius Wilson.

The strike against the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, was a violent blow against the United States and a symbolic attack on capitalism and commerce. It shut down one of the world’s busiest commercial centers for weeks, destroyed or damaged billions of dollars worth of property, and forced many New York City employers to slash their payrolls or move jobs to other areas. The immediate economic effect was substantial, but how badly did 9/11 affect New York City’s economy in the longer term? In Resilient City, Howard Chernick and a team of economic experts examine the city’s economic recovery in the three years following the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Assessing multiple facets of the New York City economy in the years after 9/11, Resilient City discerns many hopeful signs among persistent troubles. Analysis by economist Sanders Korenman indicates that the value of New York–based companies did not fall relative to other firms, indicating that investors still believe that there are business advantages to operating in New York despite higher rates of terrorism insurance and concerns about future attacks. Cordelia Reimers separates the economic effect of 9/11 from the effects of the 2001 recession by comparing employment and wage trends for disadvantaged workers in New York with those in five major U.S. cities. She finds that New Yorkers fared at least as well as people in other cities, suggesting that the decline in earnings and employment for low-income New York workers in 2002 was due more to the recession than to the effects of 9/11. Still, troubles remain for New York City. Howard Chernick considers the substantial fiscal implications of the terrorist attacks on New York City, estimating that the attack cost the city about $3 billion in the first two years alone; a sum that the city now must make up through large tax increases, spending cuts, and substantial additional borrowing, which will inevitably be a burden on future budgets.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 dealt a severe blow to the economy of New York City, but it was far from a knock-out punch. Resilient City shows that New York’s dynamic, flexible economy has absorbed the hardships inflicted by the attacks, and provides a thorough, authoritative assessment of what, so far, has been a strong recovery.

HOWARD CHERNICK is professor of economics at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

CONTRIBUTORS:  Joshua Chang,  Oliver D. Cooke,  Franz Fuerst,  Andrew F. Haughwout,  Edward W. Hill,  Sanders Korenman,  Iryna Lendel,  James A. Parrott,  Cordelia W. Reimers,  Jonathan A. Schwabish. 

A September 11 Initiative Volume

Semi-Finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award

"Putting Children First is must reading for anyone making decisions that affect low-income mothers as they struggle to balance work and family responsibilities-in fact, for anyone who cares about the future of children. Ajay Chaudry makes crystal clear the pitfalls of making social policy from an altitude of 50,000 feet. Knowing the facts on the ground is the first step to a sensible child-care system. We have a long way to go, but this book is a great step in the right direction."
-PETER B. EDELMAN, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

"Ajay Chaudry's Putting Children First is the most insightful and poignant study of the child-care problems of poor single mothers in urban areas that I have read. This book should be required reading not only for students of urban poverty, but also for national policy makers of welfare reform who have yet to address many of the unique challenges of single motherhood in low-income urban neighborhoods."
-WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University

"An honest, poignant ethnography, Putting Children First provides an extraordinary window into the child care worries of poorly paid working mothers who find that good care for their children is unaffordable and scarce. Ajay Chaudry reminds us what it costs to drop the best interests of children from our national policy agenda. Sharp, focused, and wise."
-CAROL STACK, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies in Education, University of California, Berkeley

"Ajay Chaudry skillfully takes us into the reality of the child care struggles of low-income working parents, and the picture is both disturbing and illuminating. The findings will almost certainly alter the reader's thinking about the dilemmas mothers and policy makers face and the strategies for doing better. If one cares about welfare reform, or low-income workers, or most importantly the future of our children, this book is important reading."
-DAVID T. ELLWOOD, Dean and Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

In the five years following the passage of federal welfare reform law, the labor force participation of low-income, single mothers with young children climbed by more than 25 percent. With significantly more hours spent outside the home, single working mothers face a serious childcare crunch—how can they provide quality care for their children? In Putting Children First, Ajay Chaudry follows forty-two low-income families in New York City over three years to illuminate the plight of these mothers and the ways in which they respond to the difficult challenge of providing for their children’s material and developmental needs with limited resources.

Using the words of the women themselves, Chaudry tells a startling story. Scarce subsidies, complicated bureaucracies, inflexible work schedules, and limited choices force families to piece together care arrangements that are often unstable, unreliable, inconvenient, and of limited quality. Because their wages are so low, these women are forced to rely on inexpensive caregivers who are often under-qualified to serve the developmental needs of their children. Even when these mothers find good, affordable care, it rarely lasts long because their volatile employment situations throw their needs into constant flux. The average woman in Chaudry’s sample had to find five different primary caregivers in her child’s first four years, while over a quarter of them needed seven or more in that time.

This book lets single, low-income mothers describe the childcare arrangements they desire and the ways that options available to them fail to meet even their most basic needs. As Chaudry tracks these women through erratic childcare spells, he reveals the strategies they employ, the tremendous costs they incur and the anxiety they face when trying to ensure that their children are given proper care.

Honest, powerful, and alarming, Putting Children First gives a fresh perspective on work and family for the disadvantaged. It infuses a human voice into the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of welfare reform, showing the flaws of a social policy based solely on personal responsibility without concurrent societal responsibility, and suggesting a better path for the future.

AJAY CHAUDRY is a writer on social policy issues and a faculty and senior research fellow in urban policy and management at New School University.