This feature is part of an ongoing RSF blog series, Work in Progress, which highlights some of the research of our current class of Visiting Scholars.

This fall, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the official national poverty rate as 14.8%, a number virtually unchanged from the year prior. Many poverty scholars, including RSF president Sheldon Danziger, have long debated the accuracy of this official measure, pointing out that it does not take into account non-cash benefits such as food stamps and housing subsidies, and therefore fails to reflect the importance of the social safety net for low-income families.

Current RSF Visiting Scholar James Ziliak (University of Kentucky) has identified yet another factor that affects the Census Bureau’s official poverty measure, which is calculated based on responses to earnings questions on the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). In his ongoing research, Ziliak has observed a non-response rate to ASEC earnings questions of over 30%. These missing figures present a significant obstacle to our understanding of poverty and inequality—if, for example, a significant percentage of ASEC non-respondents are low-income, the national poverty rate would be much higher than the Census Bureau’s current estimate.

While the Census has in place a process for accounting for ASEC non-responses, Ziliak has also identified shortcomings with their approach. To obtain more accurate income data for non-respondents, Ziliak instead links the Current Population Survey to tax records. In a new interview with the Foundation, Ziliak discussed his work and its ramifications for the way we measure and understand poverty.

Q. Your research at the Foundation examines the rise of non-responses to earnings questions in the Current Population Survey and its effect on our understanding of poverty in the US. How does the Census Bureau currently account for non-respondents? What are the shortcomings of their approach?

The Russell Sage Foundation has recently approved the following Presidential Authority awards in three of its program areas—Future of Work, Social Inequality, and Behavioral Economics—as well as three conferences for upcoming issues of the RSF journal.

RSF Journal Conferences:

The Coleman Report at 50: Its Legacy and Enduring Value
Karl Alexander and Stephen Morgan (Johns Hopkins University)

For an upcoming issue of RSF, Karl Alexander and Stephen Morgan organized a symposium featuring fourteen invited articles for the fiftieth anniversary of the quality of the 1966 Educational Opportunity Report, or “Coleman Report,” which assessed the lack of equal educational opportunities for minority children in the U.S. The issue will examine the Report’s methods and its substantive conclusions through the lens of advances over the past half century across several social science disciplines.

Undocumented Immigration
Roberto G. Gonzales (Harvard University) and Steven Raphael (University of California, Berkeley)

For an upcoming issue of RSF, Roberto Gonzales and Steven Raphael organized a symposium featuring nine articles that examine the effects of federal, state, and local policy on immigrants’ experience of living undocumented and explore how undocumented status affects social mobility and civic participation.

Wealth Inequality
Fabian Pfeffer and Robert Schoeni (University of Michigan)

For an upcoming issue of the RSF, Fabian Pfeffer and Robert Schoeni organized a symposium featuring nine articles that examine the determinants of high and rising levels of wealth inequality, its economic and social consequences, and potential policy responses.

The Russell Sage Foundation is pleased to announce the publication of its new social science journal, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. RSF will promote cross-disciplinary collaborations on timely topics of interest to social scientists and other academic researchers, policymakers, and the public at large.

Of the new journal RSF president Sheldon Danziger says, "RSF builds upon the foundation's long history of publishing and disseminating rigorously evaluated social science research. As a peer-reviewed, open-access publication, RSF provides a prestigious outlet for original empirical research by both established and emerging scholars."

The inaugural double issue of RSF, edited by sociologist Matthew Desmond (Harvard University), focuses on families experiencing "severe deprivation," or acute, compounded, and persistent economic hardship. In this issue, a distinguished roster of poverty scholars from multiple disciplines examine how the Great Recession, plus factors such as rising housing costs, welfare reform, mass incarceration, suppressed wages, and pervasive joblessness have contributed to deepening poverty in America. Click here to read the full open-access issue online.

A number of issues of RSF are scheduled for publication, including "The Elementary and Secondary Education Act at Fifty and Beyond," edited by David A. Gamson (Pennsylvania State University), Kathryn A. McDermott (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), and Douglas S. Reed (Georgetown University), which will be released in December.