Time’s Up! Shorter Hours, Public Policy, and Time Flexibility as an Antidote to Youth Unemployment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Eva Maich ◽  
Jamie K. McCallum ◽  
Ari Grant-Sasson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Hours Of Work ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Work Scheduling

This chapter explores the relationship between hours of work and unemployment. When it comes to time spent working in the United States at present, two problems immediately come to light. First, an asymmetrical distribution of working time persists, with some people overworked and others underemployed. Second, hours are increasingly unstable; precarious on-call work scheduling and gig economy–style employment relationships are the canaries in the coal mine of a labor market that produces fewer and fewer stable jobs. It is possible that some kind of shorter hours movement, especially one that places an emphasis on young workers, has the potential to address these problems. Some policies and processes are already in place to transition into a shorter hours economy right now even if those possibilities are mediated by an anti-worker political administration.

Theories of the Causes of Poverty

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Brady
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Behavioral Theories ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Explicit Theory ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Structural Theories ◽  
Causes Of Poverty

There has been a lack of debate between and frameworks for theories of the causes of poverty. This article proposes that most theories of poverty can be productively categorized into three broader families of theories: behavioral, structural, and political. Behavioral theories concentrate on individual behaviors as driven by incentives and culture. Structural theories emphasize the demographic and labor market context, which causes both behavior and poverty. Political theories contend that power and institutions cause policy, which causes poverty and moderates the relationship between behavior and poverty. I review each theory's arguments, contributions, and challenges. Furthermore, I explain how to integrate, classify studies into, and distinguish between theories. Ultimately, I argue that poverty research would benefit from more explicit theory and theoretical debate, as well as greater interdisciplinarity and integration between studies of the United States, rich democracies, and developing countries.

The Relationship Between Productivity Changes and Poverty in the United States

1995 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Hayes ◽  
D. J. Slottje ◽  
M. L. Nieswiadomy ◽  
E. N. Wolff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Policy Implication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Macroeconomic Variables ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines the relationship between poverty and changes in productivity and other macroeconomic variables. It is not assumed that the relationship is unidirectional from productivity to poverty. Specifically, the hypothesis is that there may be bi-directional causality between poverty and changes in productivity. The empirical results suggest that feedback does exist between productivity and poverty. The clear public policy implication is that measures intended to affect productivity growth or poverty must be designed simultaneously.

Public opinion and public policy in the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saundra K. Schneider ◽  
William G. Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Responsiveness ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Policy Field ◽  
The Relationship

In a properly-functioning democracy, public opinion should not only be correlated with, but also a major determinant of, public policy. Is that the case in the United States? In this chapter, we address that question by covering the major lines of empirical research on the relationship between American public opinion and public policy. We begin with early work that emphasized the limits of popular thinking about government, creating the apparent need for democratic elitism in governmental action. More recent literature includes perspectives from the public policy field, and research on democratic responsiveness at both the national and state levels. Major lines of work emphasize the existence of rational public opinion at the aggregate level which ‘smooths out’ the inconsistencies that may exist within individual policy attitudes. Seminal studies have considered both the degree of correspondence between opinion and policy (i.e., ‘the rational public’), and models that specify how policy responds to opinion (thermostatic responses and the macropolity). Recent methodological innovations have led to new insights about democratic responsiveness in the American states. Our general conclusion is cautiously optimistic: Policy generally does follow the contours of citizen preference, but elites also have opportunities to shape manifestations of public opinion.

The Children of Low-Status Immigrants and Youth Unemployment in the United States and Western Europe

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Alba ◽  
Nancy Foner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Native Youth

This chapter examines the challenges faced by the children of low-status immigrants in education and the labor market. While youth in general face more challenges in the early twenty-first-century than their parents and grandparents did, many of these second-generation youth face a special set of hurdles because of their disadvantaged immigrant origins. In education, the second generations originating from low-status groups suffer “ethnic penalties.” One reason is that many adults in positions of authority in school systems and workplaces hold prejudices that lead to subtle or occasionally blatant discrimination against these second-generation youth. The problems in the educational system are compounded by those these youth face when they enter the labor market. In general, they are less likely to be employed than native youth with comparable educational attainment, and sometimes, as in France and Germany, these employment penalties are large.

Family values and public policy: a venture in prediction and prescription

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin L. Schorr
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Family Structure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Values ◽  
American Family ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Relative Safety ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Structure And Activity

Ideology and public policy are so intimately related that they may only with difficulty be seen separately. This essay attempts to view one kind of ideology, American family values, and predict the manner in which they will affect public policy and be altered by public policy. Whatever its intrinsic hazards, prediction for the last quarter of the century affords relative safety for a few years anyway. The term ‘family values’ is used broadly here to encompass objectives that are professed for families in the United States as well as patterns of family structure and activity to which, by practising them, we show attachment. I begin with a brief review and commentary upon the relationship between family values and public policy to date, concluded with some comments on the role that social scientists and reformers might play. Discussion of the future follows, with one further prescription.

scholarly journals Citizenship and Military Service in Italian-American Relations, 1901-1918

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-376
Author(s):  
Bahar Gürsel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Military Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Experience ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Italian Americans ◽  
Italian American ◽  
The Relationship

Conflicts over citizenship and military service became a central issue in Italian-American relations in the early twentieth century. The United States and Italy founded their concepts of citizenship on two different bases, jus soli and jus sanguinis. As a consequence of this difference and the swelling number of Italian immigrants naturalized in America, the two governments' policies about naturalization and military service collided until 1918. The Italian government's policy put Italian Americans' loyalty to the United States in jeopardy, especially for men who wished to return to Italy for business or educational purposes. Thus, the study of Italian Americans' experiences in the context of the policies of both countries illustrates a key aspect of the relationship between the United States and Italy, both in terms of social experience and public policy.

Abusive Men's Use of Children to Control Their Partners and Ex-Partners

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa L. Beeble ◽  
Deborah Bybee ◽  
Cris M. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Multiple Variables ◽  
The Relationship

While research has found that millions of children in the United States are exposed to their mothers being battered, and that many are themselves abused as well, little is known about the ways in which children are used by abusers to manipulate or harm their mothers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that perpetrators use children in a variety of ways to control and harm women; however, no studies to date have empirically examined the extent of this occurring. Therefore, the current study examined the extent to which survivors of abuse experienced this, as well as the conditions under which it occurred. Interviews were conducted with 156 women who had experienced recent intimate partner violence. Each of these women had at least one child between the ages of 5 and 12. Most women (88%) reported that their assailants had used their children against them in varying ways. Multiple variables were found to be related to this occurring, including the relationship between the assailant and the children, the extent of physical and emotional abuse used by the abuser against the woman, and the assailant's court-ordered visitation status. Findings point toward the complex situational conditions by which assailants use the children of their partners or ex-partners to continue the abuse, and the need for a great deal more research in this area.

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