After analyzing income differentials among different Hispanic groups, Blacks, and Anglos, the most important single reason for the lower family incomes of Hispanics and Blacks is lower wage rates. This is especially the case for men, but also for Mexican and Cuban women, even after differences in age, education and regional distribution are…

The authors formulate a model with which they can empirically test the decision-making hypothesis of utility maximization. The model takes into account the simultaneous nature of decisions about time allocation for husband and wife and purchases of goods and services. (SSH)

Competing hypotheses relating the division of labor between husband and wife to their absolute level of education, their relative level of education, and their relative wage rates are identified, and are combined in a fully specified model. (Author)

This report concludes the main portion of MDRC's Project on Devolution and Urban Change, an eight-year effort to chart the course of welfare reform in four big urban counties: Los Angeles, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Miami-Dade, and Philadelphia. The goal of the study was to find out whether federal welfare reform would lead to meaningful changes in…

This book investigates the innovative ways being used to ensure and finance high quality care for children. Chapter 1, "Introduction," discusses the government's role in helping to structure, build, and finance the system, as well as financing strategies. Chapter 2, "Financing Child Care Supply," addresses center-based child…

This study used data from the Census of Population 1990 and 2000 to investigate economic inequalities between racial and ethnic groups, particularly blacks and Hispanics. It examined people's household incomes and the quality of their neighborhoods. Non-Hispanic Blacks remained the lowest-income minority group, with household incomes only 63.7…

Despite the national decline in child poverty and low-income rates in the United States since the early 1990s, the rates in California have surpassed those of the nation. This report, the first in a new series on child poverty in individual states, provides a demographic profile of California's low-income families, highlighting the high number and…

This monograph presents research recommending a broad, unconventional definition of cultural participation that encompasses the variety of artistic and cultural expression in a diverse society. It also examines how and why people participate in arts and culture. Information comes from an evaluation of Community Partnerships for Cultural…

Noting that a central tenet of the 1996 welfare reform law was that work was the best way to improve the lives of single parents and their children, this fact sheet summarizes research on the impact of parental work on children in families receiving welfare. The fact sheet delineates key research findings from experimental studies of the effects…

Since Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, Kansas has dramatically reduced its welfare roles. Noting that achieving self-sufficiency is the real measure of success in combating poverty, this study examines welfare reform efforts in Kansas. To gather information, United Way member agencies and…

Unless disparities in education are addressed, market-oriented reforms in Vietnam will generate inequitable agricultural growth. It is argued that if the marginal gains from investment in physical capital depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even if it has access to credit,…

The District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 was passed by Congress in January 2004. The Act provided funds for District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) improvement activities and charter school facility acquisitions. Most notably, the statute established what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program?the first federal…

A reply to an article in the April 1973 issue of "Commentary" magazine entitled "Black Progress and Liberal Rhetoric" written by two researchers, Ben J. Wattenberg and Richard Scammon; the author employed the same Census Bureau figures and other data used by Wattenberg and Scammon and arrived at opposite conclusions. (Author/JM)

Statistics for 1969 indicate an apparent improvement over 1967 in both education and income among black college families. Contends that these differences resulted largely from institutional changes in the normative sample to include institutions which tend to draw from better educated, more affluent black families. (RJ)