The UC Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research
mission is to facilitate non-partisan academic research on
poverty in the U.S., disseminate this research, and train
the next generation of poverty scholars. Our research agenda
includes four themed areas of focus: labor markets and poverty,
children and intergenerational transmission of poverty, the
non-traditional safety net, and immigration.
Between 2000 and 2015, as the U.S. deported unprecedented numbers of Mexican immigrants, the population of U.S.-born children living in Mexico doubled in size. In a recent study, using data collected in 2014 and 2018 by the Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID), we estimated the number of de facto deported children. De facto deported children are U.S.-born children who emigrated to Mexico from the U.S. to accompany a deported parent.
Cantadora Wines created a line of wines dedicated to women
contributing in exceptional ways. CPIR Director, Marianne Page,
is featured on “The
Sage.“
10% of the sales of each the wines produced go back the
organizations founded by the women featured on the bottles. The
stories of the women are an inspiration and the work they do
foundational to the health and prosperity of women and children
in our community.
December 2, 2022 – Three CPIR research affiliates have been featured in a new article in the ‘Ask the Expert’ series published by the UC Davis Office of Research.
Place-based policies commonly target disadvantaged neighborhoods for economic improvement, typically in the form of job opportunities, business development or affordable housing. In an attempt to ensure that investment is channeled to truly distressed areas, place-based programs narrow the pool of eligible neighborhoods based on a set of socioeconomic criteria. These criteria, however, may not identify the places most in need. In a recent study, we examined the relationship between neighborhood gentrification status and eligibility for a range of place-based improvement programs.
Social and economic inequality are chronic stressors that continually erode the mental and physical health of marginalized groups, undermining overall societal resilience.
December 2, 2022
The Davis Enterprise By Chancellor Gary May
Homelessness is one of the most defining and troubling challenges
of our times. According to a report by CalMatters, a
nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization, about 173,800
unhoused people are living in California. That’s an increase of
more than 22,000 since 2019.
December 2, 2022 – Three CPIR research affiliates have been featured in a new article in the ‘Ask the Expert’ series published by the UC Davis Office of Research.
A historic learning loss was reported this week, showing the
impacts of virtual learning during the pandemic. Nearly 500,000
fourth and eighth graders took tests nationwide and while no
single state saw an increase in test scores, Black and Latino
students were hit the hardest.
California’s 2022 Smarter Balanced assessment from tests taken in
the Spring of 2022 showed a decline in English Language Arts
and Math score testing.
Results for Northern California school districts showed dips from
2.91% to 8.18%.
The goal of this UCOP-funded pilot program on Child Health,
Poverty and Public Policy is to lay the foundation for a UC-wide
network of scholars who are committed to rigorous cross-training
in multiple disciplinary-specific skills and “languages” that are
necessary to produce a comprehensive understanding of the
mechanisms by which health and nutrition programs (e.g.
Although a growing number of studies suggest that providing poor
families with income supplements of as little as $1,000 per
year will improve children’s well-being, many poor children
miss important sources of income support provided through the tax
system because their parents either do not work or do not
file taxes. Accessing assistance through means-tested programs is
also challenging.
Do mothers’ biological responses to stress transfer to her child?
This is a question addressed in a recently published study by
Leah Hibel of UC Davis and Evelyn Mercado of UCLA. Though prior
reports have shown that mothers help their children regulate
distress through calming and soothing, there are few studies that
examine the ways in which a mother facing stress might transmit
stress to her child. This study shows that mothers transmit
stress to their infants and that mothers’ emotions appear to play
a role in this transmission.
Katheryn Russ has expertise in open-economy macroeconomics and
international trade policy. She is a faculty research associate
in the National Bureau of Economic Research International Trade
and Investment Group and Co-Organizer of the International Trade
and Macroeconomics Working Group. She is a Non-Resident Senior
Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and
served as Senior Economist for International Trade and Finance
for the White House Council of Economic Advisors 2015-16.
Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa is an assistant professor of education
and member of the Education and Human Development graduate
groups. She earned a Ph.D. in Education and Psychology and M.A.
in Higher Education at the University of Michigan. Broadly, her
research aims to improve education and well-being outcomes among
youth from historically marginalized communities, with a focus on
racial-ethnic, gender, and economic marginalization.
Robert Faris uses social network analysis to investigate how
health risk behaviors, including bullying, dating violence,
substance use, and delinquency, spread through social ties and
are structured in the social hierarchies of schools.
His recent work shows that adolescents bully their own friends,
as well as schoolmates with whom they share friends, to achieve
higher social status, and examines the moderating role of network
stability in this dynamic.
Rose Kagawa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Emergency Medicine. Dr. Kagawa conducts research on violence
prevention and firearm policy and has particular interest in
understanding how social and environmental contexts influence
violence perpetration and victimization through the life course.
Dr. Au’s research involves the assessment of dietary intakes and
the food environment for the prevention of obesity in low-income,
racially diverse infants and children. Her focus is on
understanding how to promote healthier eating and prevent obesity
in federal nutrition assistance programs, such as the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
and the National School Lunch Program.
Noli Brazil received his doctorate in Demography from the
University of California Berkeley in 2013, and is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Human Ecology. His research and
teaching interests focus on the causes and consequences of
neighborhood inequality. Current research projects include
examining the interactions between neighborhoods and schools,
understanding the determinants of residential mobility and
attainment during young adulthood, and Hispanic US internal
migration.
Dr. Falbe’s research focuses on studying programmatic, policy,
and environmental interventions to prevent chronic disease and
reduce health disparities. Dr. Falbe led an evaluation of the
nation’s first soda tax in Berkeley, California. Her research has
also examined primary care nutrition and physical activity
interventions for youth, healthy retail programs, and
multi-sector community interventions to prevent obesity. Dr.
Falbe received a dual doctorate in Nutrition and Epidemiology in
2013 from Harvard University.
Gail Goodman received her degree in Developmental Psychology from
UCLA in 1977. Her areas of research expertise include welfare
recipients, foster care, and the intergenerational transmission
of attachment insecurity.
Marianne Page is a Professor of Economics and
Co-Director of the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research
at UC Davis. She has authored numerous scholarly articles
focusing on low-income families. A labor economist, she is
an expert on intergenerational mobility and equality of
opportunity in the United States. She has also published on
issues related to the U.S.
1138 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Leticia Saucedo received her degree, cum laude, from
Harvard Law School in 1996. Her research centers on employment
and immigration law, immigrants in low-wage workplaces and the
structural dynamics affecting their entry.
Lisa Pruitt’s areas of research include legal and policy
implications of income inequality along the rural-urban continuum
and legal aspects of declining mobility, with an emphasis on
diminishing access to higher education.
Michal Kurlaender’s work focuses on education policy and
evaluation, particularly practices that address existing
racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequality at various stages of
the educational attainment process.
Ross A. Thompson’s research focuses on the applications of
developmental research to public policy concerns, including
school readiness and its development, early childhood
investments, and early mental health.
Paul Hastings received his degree from the University of Toronto.
His research focuses on the impact of stressors on child and
adolescent well-being, and the effects of poverty on
physiological reactivity, regulation and development of mental
and physical health problems.
Cassandra Hart is associate professor of education policy. She
evaluates the effects of school, state and national education
programs, policies, and practices on overall student achievement,
and on the equality of student outcomes. Hart’s recent work
has focused on school choice programs, school accountability
policies, early childhood education policies, and effects on
students of exposure to demographically similar teachers.
She is also interested in the effects of virtual schooling on
student outcomes, both in K-12 and post-secondary settings.
Giovanni Peri received his degree in Economics from UC Berkeley
in 1998. His research focuses on the determinants of
international migrations and their impact on labor markets,
productivity, and investments.
1140 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
A religious leader, author and social activist, Campbell devoted
her career to using tax law to benefit the underserved. “It’s
about caring for those who are most often left out,” she said.
“From a young age, I just had this idea that you had to act. You
had to step in and fix things.”
Shortly after graduating from the School of Law, she founded the
Oakland Community Law Center, which provided legal services on a
sliding-fee scale.
