Conference Podcasts

Overview

Conference Podcasts

The Center for Poverty & Inequality Research Conferences convene scholars and policy experts to discuss pressing issues in poverty and poverty research.

Overview

Employment, Earnings and Inequality

In October 2015, the Center hosted the conference “Employment, Earnings and Inequality: Realities and Opportunities in Low Wage Labor Markets.” This conference presented both quantitative and qualitative research on questions related to low wage labor markets, covering topics that include wage trends and shifts in occupations, policies that enhance wages, issues related to immigration, mobility, stigma and identity among low-skilled workers.

Keynote: Reflections on the Low Wage Labor Market: Facts and Policies
Paul Osterman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In this Keynote presentation, Paul Osterman discusses the low-wage labor market and policies that affect low-wage workers.

Osterman is the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Professor of Human Resources and Management at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management as well as a member of the Department of Urban Planning at M.I.T. 

Podcast

Is Tinkering with Safety Net Programs Harmful to Beneficiaries? Evidence from the Medicaid Notch and the Minimum Wage
Jeffrey Clemens, University of California, San Diego

In this presentation, Jeffrey Clemens discusses his work on how the Great Recession affected employment and income for low-skilled workers. Clemens is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at UC San Diego.

The Stigma of Low-Wage Work: Field- and Survey-Experimental Evidence
David Pedulla, The University of Texas at Austin

In this presentation, David Pedulla discusses his work on the stigma of low-wage work based experimental field and survey evidence. Pedulla is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Research Associate of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Overview

Increasing College Access and Success for Low Income Students

In March 2015, the Center hosted the conference “Increasing College Access and Success for Low Income Students: Building on New Research Domains.” This conference brought a unique mix of researchers, policy professionals and leaders in education to discuss new opportunities in education for low-income students.

Wise Interventions: Brief Exercises to Bolster Belonging and Improve Disadvantaged Students’ Transition to College
Greg Walton, Stanford University

In this presentation, Greg Walton presents his research on interventions that improve the transition to college for disadvantaged students. Walton is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

Randomized Controlled Trials in Community Colleges: Successes, Challenges, and Next Steps for Research on Developmental Education
Alexander Mayer, MDRC

In this presentation, Alexander Mayer presents her work on community college developmental education. Mayer is a Research Associate at MDRC, a nonprofit, non-partisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor.

Ensuring Low-Income Students Access the Opportunities They Have Earned
Jessica Howell and Jonathan Smith, College Board Advocacy & Policy Center

In this presentation Jessica Howell and Jonathan Smith discuss how to ensure that low-income students have access to the opportunities they have earned.

Jessica Howell is the executive director of policy research and the co-director of the College Board’s Advocacy & Policy Center, and Jonathan Smith is an Associate Policy Research Scientist at the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and conducts research on student-college match.

Overview

Poverty and Place

In November 2014, the Center hosted the conference “Poverty and Place,” which focused on the implications of geography and population density have for poverty. This conference brought together a unique mix of researchers, policy professionals and industry leaders to discuss their work studying the people, geography, and the safety net as it relates to persistent poverty.

Poverty and Place Conference Opening Remarks
Ann Huff Stevens, UC Davis Center for Poverty Research

Ann Stevens is Director of the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis, Economics Professor and Interim Dean at the Graduate School of Management. She studies low income workers and labor markets, the incidence and effects of job loss, connections between economic shocks and health, and poverty and safety-net dynamics. Stevens previously served on the faculty at Rutgers and Yale Universities and is a faculty research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Places in Need: The Geography of Poverty and the American Safety Net
Scott Allard, University of Washington

Scott W. Allard is a Professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington with expertise in social welfare policy, federalism and intergovernmental relationships, and urban policy. Allard is a nonresidential senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program and co-director of the Family Self-Sufficiency Data Center at the University of Chicago Review.

‘Just Leave Me Alone’: Social Isolation and Civic Disengagement for the Small-City Poor
Jennifer Sherman, Washington State University

Jennifer Sherman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington State University. Her research looks at the interactions of economic conditions, cultural norms, and family outcomes, particularly in rural areas.  Sherman focuses on families experiencing poverty and low incomes in order to understand the ways in which their choices and decisions are impacted by economic constraints and community contexts.

Overview

The Affordable Care Act and Low-income Populations

In November 2013, the Center hosted the conference “The Affordable Care Act & Low Income Populations: Lessons from and Challenges for Research.” This conference brought together a unique mix of researchers, policy professionals and industry leaders to discuss what the new law means for health care in this country, as well as its possible impacts on domestic poverty.

Affordable Care Act Conference Opening Remarks
Ann Stevens, UC Davis Center for Poverty Research

Ann Huff Stevens is the Director of the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, and Professor of Economics at UC Davis. She has served as an investigator on several grants from the National Science Foundation, including a study currently underway to better understand the relationship between cyclical movements in unemployment and mortality. Stevens is also a faculty research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Affordable Care Act Conference Keynote Talk
Mitchell Katz, LA County Department of Health Services

In his keynote presentation, Mitchell Katz talks about the challenges of providing health care to poor and uninsured populations, and the changes required of county hospitals by the Affordable Care Act.

Katz is the director of Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, which serves more than ten million residents, about one million of whom have no medical insurance.

Expanding Coverage to Uninsured Childless Adults and its Effect on the Use of Health Care
Tom DeLeire, Georgetown University

In this presentation, Tom DeLeire discusses his research on how the Affordable Care Act might affect how much childless adults use health care. DeLeire is a Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Overview

The War on Poverty

In January, 2014, the Center hosted the “War on Poverty Conference” fifty years after the passage of President Lyndon Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act in 1964. Johnson’s legislation was the start of many anti-poverty programs that provided access to health care, nutritional assistance and educational support that continue today. This conference hosted top poverty scholars who look closely at its legacy.

“I’m For Grandma”: The War On Poverty, the Budget and LBJ’s Economic Vision
Kent Germany, University of South Carolina

In this presentation, Kent Germany discusses the War on Poverty, the United States budget, and president Lyndon Johnson’s economic vision.

Germany is an Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina and co-host of For The Record, a PBS interview program on politics and history.

How We Fought the War on Poverty: A Quantitative History
Martha Bailey, University of Michigan

In this presentation, Martha Bailey discusses a quantitative history of the War on Poverty.

Bailey is an Associate Professor of Economics and a Research Associate Professor at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. She is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Discussion of How We Fought the War on Poverty: A Quantitative History
Gavin Wright, Stanford University

In this presentation, Gavin Wright discusses Martha Bailey’s paper, “How We Fought the War on Poverty: A Quantitative History.”

Wright is the William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.