In 2022, Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency(HHSA)
launched the Yolo County Basic Income (YOBI)project and engaged
the UC Davis Center for Regional Change to evaluate the project
via the collection of survey data from YOBI participants. The
YOBI project was designed to address the county’s poverty, which
is ~25%higher than the California rate reported in the 2021
Census.
COVID-19 May Have Been Job Related for One Fourth of
Diagnosed Adults
We catch COVID-19 from each other. The fewer people we
encounter,
the safer we will be. Our desire for fewer encounters was
especially apparent in employment arrangements during the first
two and a half years
of the pandemic. Most workers whom employers allowed to work from
home did so; most whose employers did not allow this reported to
their workplaces.
Dr. Weissman’s paper on the antipoverty programs and income
disparities in brain structure and mental health was published by
Nature Communications. David Weissman is the study’s lead author
and a postdoctoral fellow in McLaughlin’s Stress & Development
Lab at Harvard University. Former CPIR affiliate Dr. Weissman
received his PhD in Psychology from the University of California,
Davis, where he worked under the mentorship of CPIR affiliates
Dr. Paul Hastings and Dr. Amanda Guyer.
Abstract: Macrostructural characteristics, such as cost of living
and state-level anti-poverty programs relate to the magnitude of
socioeconomic disparities in brain development and mental health.
In this study we leveraged data from the Adolescent Brain and
Cognitive Development (ABCD) study from 10,633 9-11 year old
youth (5115 female) across 17 states. Lower income was associated
with smaller hippocampal volume and higher internalizing
psychopathology. These associations were stronger in states with
higher cost of living. However, in high cost of living states
that provide more generous cash benefits for low-income families,
socioeconomic disparities in hippocampal volume were reduced by
34%, such that the association of family income with hippocampal
volume resembled that in the lowest cost of living states. We
observed similar patterns for internalizing psychopathology.
State-level anti-poverty programs and cost of living may be
confounded with other factors related to neurodevelopment and
mental health. However, the patterns were robust to controls for
numerous state-level social, economic, and political
characteristics. These findings suggest that state-level
macrostructural characteristics, including the generosity of
anti-poverty policies, are potentially relevant for addressing
the relationship of low income with brain development and mental
health.
Sociology PhD Candidate, Paola Langer, won the 2023 Population
Association of America Poster Award for her work,
State-Level Spending and Black–White Mortality
Gaps
The three-year fellowships are part of the College of Letters and
Science Faculty Investment Initiative to support early faculty
research excellence and development.
Camelia Hostinar
Department of Psychology and Center for Poverty & Inequality
Research
Elisa Ugarte, a doctoral candidate in Human Ecology, and Lisa
Johnson, a doctoral candidate in Developmental Psychology,
recently published an article in New Directions for Child and
Adolescent Development. Ugarte and Johnson received a training
grant from the UC Network for Child
Health, poverty, and Public Policy for this research.
Two faculty members and a doctoral student in sociology recently
received the Best Publication Award for 2021 from the American
Sociological Association’s Sociology of Mental Health Section.
The Rural Sociological Society will honor Professor Lisa
Pruitt on Sunday, Aug. 1 with its Excellence in Research
award.
The awards ceremony will take place virtually as part of the
society’s 83rd Annual Meeting. Pruitt also will participate
in conference panels.
The society’s Awards and Endowment Committee has lauded Pruitt’s
contributions to rural research and scholarship as “truly
unique,” noting that Pruitt has “brought important attention to
rural legal issues.”
UC Davis College of Letters & Sciences
June 17, 2020
Camelia Hostinar, an assistant professor of psychology, will
receive an American Psychological Association early career award
for her research investigating how poverty influences children’s
development.
The APA’s developmental psychology Division 7 recently
selected Hostinar for a 2022 Boyd McCandless
Award, which recognizes young scientists who make exceptional
contributions to the field during the first eight years of
their academic career.
Extensive economic research demonstrates correlations between
unions with wages, income inequality, health insurance,
discrimination, and other factors. Corresponding epidemiologic
literature demonstrates correlations between income, income
inequality, insurance, discrimination, and other factors with
health. The first purpose of this narrative review is to link
these literatures and identify 28 possible pathways whereby labor
unions might affect the health of workers. This review is
restricted to effects within workplaces; we do not consider
unions’ political activities.
Abstract:
The paper examines the individual-level building blocks of
getting out the vote (GOTV) for electoral parties that represent
subaltern sectors in resource scarce environments. Drawing on
theories of protest waves, social movement fields, and
threat-induced collective action, we examine the likelihood of
campaigning in left party electoral mobilization and party
identification.
Abstract: This literature review analyzes studies from the
US, Canada, the UK, and Europe from inception to April 1, 2021
and focuses on treatment designs, health outcomes, demographic
categories and data issues. Study designs are classified as
treatment-effect-on-the-treated (7 studies), intent-to-treat
(37), and what may be called possible-effects-on-anyone (10).
Treatment-effects-on-the-treated designs are best for addressing
the longstanding question: does income affect health or vice
versa?
Congratulations to previous participants in our Visiting Graduate
Student program on the publication of their paper. Kathryn
Edwards, Jennifer Scott, and Alex Stanczyk met in 2014 through
the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research’s Visiting
Graduate Student program. They recently published “Moonlighting
to the Side Hustle: The Effect of Working an Extra Job on
Household Poverty for Households With Less Formal
Education,” a paper they began working on during our
program. Read the paper published in Families in Society: The
Journal of Contemporary Social Services below.
Our Center was founded in 2011 as one of three federally
designated Poverty Research Centers. As our Center has grown over
the past nine years, so too has our research agenda, expanding
beyond a strict focus on poverty to include overlapping
dimensions of social and economic inequality. Today, Center
affiliates’ research contributes to our understanding of the
causes and consequences of, and solutions to, economic
disadvantage as it relates to race and ethnicity, geospatial
context, gender, immigrant status, and disability.
SACRAMENTO — Continuing his commitment to strengthen,
innovate and grow California’s economy, Governor Gavin Newsom
today announced the creation of his Council of Economic Advisors.
The Council will advise the Governor and Director of the
California Department of Finance Keely Martin Bosler on
wide-ranging economic issues and deepen relationships between the
Administration and academic researchers to keep California moving
toward an economy that is inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.
Center for Poverty Research Director Marianne Page and
Faculty Affiliate Ross Thompson were invited to speak on a panel
at the Childhood Obesity Conference in Anaheim, CA
July 15-18. Their session entitled “Poverty: Obesity
Prevention’s Top Priority?” discussed how childhood obesity is
tied to so many other issues—poverty, family supports, and
healthy communities.
Congratulations to 2013-2014 small grants recipient David
Phillips on the publication of his paper in the Journal of Human
Resources. His paper, “Do Low-Wage Employers Discriminate Against
Applicants with Long Commutes? Evidence from a Correspondence
Experiment,” studies how employers respond to low-wage job
applicants’ home addresses.
The UC Davis Center for Poverty Research is please to announce
the renewal of the UCD-SPREE program. The Center will once again
host undergraduates from Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) for summer experiences with poverty research
and mentorship toward academic careers.
Center for Poverty Research (CPR) Director Marianne Page and
Faculty Affiliate Marianne Bitler will present their research
this month at the Institute
for Researchon
Poverty’s (IRP) annual summer research workshop.
Each June the workshop brings together poverty
scholars at all stages in their careers to present their research
on low-income populations.
Last week the deputy director and four faculty affiliates of the
UC Davis Center for Poverty Research (CPR) presented their
research at the annual meeting of the Population Association of
America (PAA) in Denver. Their papers were among those
selected from a pool of 4,000 submissions for 254 oral sessions
that represent the interdisciplinary nature of population
research and cover diverse population issues.
In August eight students from historically black colleges and
universities (HBCUs) concluded a seven-week, intensive research
program through the University of California, Davis Summer
Poverty Research Engagement Experience (UCD-SPREE). Under the
auspices of the program, UCD faculty provide mentorship and
guidance to a select group of students to conduct research and
prepare for the rigors of doctoral programs.
On September 12, 2017 the Census Bureau released the
official poverty rate for 2016 (12.7%), showing that 40.6
million Americans live below the federal poverty line
(FPL), currently set at $24,563 for a family of four. This
poverty measure is an estimate of the annual income required to
meet basic needs.
The Census Bureau’s latest poverty statistics show that last year
13.5 percent of Americans still lived below the federal poverty
line. The official poverty rate is a valuable measure of how
well we as a nation ensure opportunity for those who earn the
least. However, just as important is understanding why the
poverty rate has not changed, how it affects those who are poor
and what policies can make a difference.
The new Census Bureau report on poverty, to be released on Sept.
13th, will tell us the new poverty rate and details
about who is poor in the United States. The Center for Poverty
Research is preparing a number of responses to share what
research shows can help end poverty for millions of individuals
and families.
Center for Poverty Research faculty affiliates are available to
comment for stories related to all aspects of poverty in the
United States. Contact the
Center if you have specific request for one of our
faculty not on this list.
It can be hard to plan for basic needs, like paying rent or
taking care of your kids, if you don’t know when you’ll be
working next week or just how many hours you will be needed.
A new study by researchers at the University of California,
Davis, finds that an unpredictable work week is the norm for
growing numbers of low-wage workers — nearly 40 percent of whom
worked variable hours for at least one four-month period after
the start of the 2007-2009 Great Recession.
Center for Poverty Research executive committee member Jacob
Hibel has won a grant to study how schools adapt to a sharp
increase in immigrant families, which will help develop
interventions to help low-income kids who may have trouble
catching up to their peers.
A UC Davis economist and Center for Poverty Research Faculty
Affiliate is taking part in an evaluation of the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC).
The project is being conducted by a committee organized by the
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the
request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition
Service. Its goal is to see if the redesigned WIC food packages
meet the goals of the program, which are to protect the health of
women, infants, and young children who are at risk of poor
nutrition.
Three of last year’s Visiting Graduate Scholars presented a joint
project with a poster at the 2015 Fall Research Conference hosted
by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and
Management.
The poster, “Moonlighting to Make Ends Meet: The Impact of
Multiple Job Holding on Household Economic Wellbeing,” by
Jennifer Scott, Alexandra Stanczyk and Kathryn Ann Edwards,
described how holding multiple jobs can reduce poverty by
increasing family income.
By Ben Hinshaw, Institute for Social
Sciences — Welfare has long been the subject of heated
debate. On November 6, 2015, Manasi Deshpande continued that
debate at a seminar hosted by the Center for Poverty Research.
Focusing on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Deshpande, an
assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago,
presented her recent paper “Does Welfare Inhibit Success? The
Long-Term Effects of Removing Low-Income Youth from Disability
Insurance.”
DAVIS, Calif. — Center for Poverty Research faculty
affiliates in education and economics have been awarded nearly $5
million to find out how well the state prepares K-12 students for
college and careers.
DAVIS, Calif. — In this new video series released by the UC
Davis Center for Poverty Research, Faculty Affiliates discuss
some of the causes and consequences of poverty in the U.S. as
well as possible solutions suggested by research from across
academic disciplines.
DAVIS, Calif. — Eight undergraduates visiting UC Davis from
historically black colleges and universities capped off their
summer research experience with presentations on schools, stress
and child development, trauma and memory and the Earned Income
Tax Credit.
The University of California, Davis, School of Medicine,
Department of Public Health Sciences invites applications for a
faculty position at the Assistant Professor level with expertise
in public health and poverty policy research and teaching.
The latest portrait of poverty in California: Find out which
groups and regions are bearing the brunt of living in the
country’s highest-poverty state and how well the safety net is
working to reduce poverty.
DAVIS, Calif. — UC Davis graduate students affiliated with the
Center for Poverty Research have recently won a number of
prestigious fellowships for their research.
This year, fellowships graduate student affiliates have won
include the UC Davis Provost’s Fellowship in the Arts,
Humanities, and Social Sciences; National Academy of
Education/Spencer Foundation dissertation fellowships and the
American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship.
When our three new undergraduates arrived last January to start
their Public Policy Fellowships at the Center for Poverty
Research, they had no idea what they were getting into, and only
a vague sense of what they would accomplish by summer. All they
had was potential and an interest in poverty policy.
“When I applied for the fellowship,” says Alex Matsiras, a
managerial economics major, “I was taking a class about poverty
in the world so I thought it’d be interesting.”
DAVIS, Calif. — Center director Ann Huff Stevens has been
appointed interim dean of the Graduate School of Management.
Stevens will continue to direct the center but will give up her
position as chair of the Department of Economics. She will serve
as dean until the position is filled permanently, but will not be
a candidate for the job. Stevens’ appointment is effective
October 1.
STANFORD, Calif. — The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
featured work by Center for Poverty Research directors and
affiliates in their summer 2014 issue of Pathways magazine. The
articles by Ann Stevens, Marianne Page, Giovanni Peri and Hilary
Hoynes, focused on aspects of labor markets ranging from
immigrants to job loss to safety net programs.
DAVIS, Calif. — The UC Davis Center for Poverty Research has
launched a program to host undergraduates from Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for summer experiences with
poverty research and mentorship toward academic careers.
DAVIS, Calif. – American Winter, a
documentary feature film on American poverty, was screened at UC
Davis on May 22, accompanied by a resource fair and panel
discussion moderated by Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor.
DAVIS, Calif. — More than 60 women leaders from the Sacramento
region convened at UC Davis in March to discuss the complex
challenges women face in the workplace with an eye toward policy
that could affect the nation.
