An Econometric Analysis of the Effects of the Job Training Partnership Act on Self-Sufficiency

The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the likelihood of a Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) participant getting a job placement after receiving training, and to identifying the factors that affect the attainment of self-sufficiency (Bloom and Charles, 2001; Friedlander, 1988; Gueron and Edward, 1991). Additionally, the research study focuses on learning more about the determinants of the wage rate at the time when a participant gets a placement. This study has found that successful completion of training combined with prior work experience are the most important factors that affect the chance of getting a job placement. This finding is consistent with Eberts (2002) and Schexnayder et al. (1991). Furthermore, the results show that the most significant variables affecting self-sufficiency are (1) completion of long-term training and (2) reading ability. An additional finding of the study is that if the participant is a recipient of food stamps, then his/her probability of achieving self-sufficiency decreases. Our study’s main contribution is the identification of significant variables to be included in the development of workforce policies aiming at promoting economic self-sufficiency and mitigating poverty in Florida.

Stirring up lessons for food activists [Book review]

The book Stirrings examines the anti-hunger efforts of the food movement in the latter part of the 20th century for lessons in their suc­cesses and failures, as well as relevance to the modern food movement in America. Its six chap­ters examine four food nonprofits’ responses to hunger and its causes in urban New York City (NYC). The diversity of these case studies allowed for multidimensional analyses and insights of how groups of people can work to challenge policy pri­ori­ties and change social values that cause hunger. The context of the case studies is established in the introduction by recounting the history and politics of the awareness of hunger and poverty in Amer­ica, the “land of plenty and wealth” during the 1960s, and the subsequent federal government anti-hunger and welfare programs (e.g., War on Poverty and food stamps programs). This context also includes the drastic reductions of these pro­grams, first by the austerity budget measures of the mid-1970s and then by the rise of neoliberal gov­ernment policies starting in the 1980s. This infor­mation is intended to inform the reader of the raison d’etre for the rise and diversity of food activism movement described in this book. . . .

Child Money and Food Stamps: A comparative analysis of Mongolian welfare programmes in the Ger Districts of Ulaanbaatar

Until recently, the Mongolian welfare system was entirely category based. However, a new food stamps programme funded by loans from the Asian Development Bank, which targets aid according to proxy means testing, has been introduced as part of the bank’s aim to push Mongolia towards a fiscally sustainable welfare model. The food stamps programme is presented as efficient and responsible in contrast to Mongolia’s universal child money programme. Based on long-term participant observation research in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar, areas inhabited by many rural-urban migrants living in poverty, this paper compares the two programmes, interweaving street-level accounts of the experiences of residents and bureaucrats alike with the respective histories and funding sources of the two programmes. Doing so provides a multi-level analysis of the emergent welfare state in Mongolia, unpicking the ‘system’ that ger district residents encounter, linking the relative influence of international financial institutions to democratic and economic cycles, and offering a critique of the supposed efficiency of targeted welfare programmes.

Marginalization or Incorporation? Welfare Receipt and Political Participation among Young Adults

Prior scholarship finds that participation in means-tested welfare programs, including cash assistance and food stamps, deters political participation among groups that are already politically and socioeconomically marginalized. We revisit these findings within a contemporary context using nationally representative data, along with fixed-effects models that adjust for time-stable unobserved and time-varying observed characteristics. In contrast to prior research, we find little evidence that cash assistance is related to participation. However, food stamps—a benefits program that has undergone substantial changes in recent years—is positively associated with being registered to vote. Moreover, food stamps has countervailing associations with voting—e.g., marginalizing and incorporating—that depend on a person’s attention to politics. Together, these findings revise our understanding of how welfare influences political inequalities and advances policy feedback scholarship by identifying heterogeneity by political attentiveness as a focus of future inquiry.

Public opinion and the politics of collateral consequence policies

We analyze data from a national sample of the U.S. population to assess public support for policies that deny former offenders’ access to job training programs, food stamps, and public housing. We find that Americans generally oppose benefit restrictions, though support for these policies is higher among Republicans and people with higher levels of racial resentment. We also find that a legislator’s criminal justice reform positions generally do not significantly affect voters’ evaluation of him or her, and even voters with more punitive attitudes toward collateral consequence policies support legislators who advance particular kinds of reform proposals. These findings provide little evidence that any group of Americans would be mobilized to vote against a legislator who works to reform collateral consequence policies. We discuss the implications of these findings for American and comparative studies of the politics of punishment.

Screening for Park Access during a Primary Care Social Determinants Screen

While there is evidence that access to nature and parks benefits pediatric health, it is unclear how low-income families living in an urban center acknowledge or prioritize access to parks. Methods: We conducted a study about access to parks by pediatric patients in a health system serving low-income families. Adult caregivers of pediatric patients completed a survey to identify and prioritize unmet social and economic needs, including access to parks. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to explore associations between lack of access to parks and sociodemographic variables. We also explored the extent to which access to parks competed with other needs. Results: The survey was completed by 890 caregivers; 151 (17%) identified “access to green spaces/parks/playgrounds” as an unmet need, compared to 397 (45%) who endorsed “running out of food before you had money or food stamps to buy more”. Being at or below the poverty line doubled the odds (Odds ratio 1.96, 95% CI 1.16–3.31) of lacking access to a park (reference group: above the poverty line), and lacking a high school degree nearly doubled the odds. Thirty-three of the 151 (22%) caregivers who identified access to parks as an unmet need prioritized it as one of three top unmet needs. Families who faced competing needs of housing, food, and employment insecurity were less likely to prioritize park access (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Clinical interventions to increase park access would benefit from an understanding of the social and economic adversity faced by patients.