Pathways Magazine - Summer 2008

Table of Contents (Winter 2009 Issue)

Editors' Note by David Grusky and Christopher Wimer

Trends

• Cause for Alarm? Understanding Recent Trends in Teenage Childbearing by Frank F. Furstenberg
  Teen pregnancy is again on the rise. Would reducing teen pregnancy yield substantial reductions in poverty? Frank F. Furstenberg gives a surprising answer.
  

Research in Brief

• New research developments
  The effects of Internet use on earnings, old age as the great happiness equalizer, a Texas experiment on college admissions, and other cutting-edge research.

How Can We Fight Poverty During Economic Downturns?

• Insuring Against Recession by Alan Krueger
  ALAN KRUEGER makes the case that reforming unemployment insurance will both help the poor and provide a much-needed dose of economic stimulus.
  
• A Golden Parachute for Everyone? by Dalton Conley
  DALTON CONLEY argues that the downturn is a wake-up call with an opportunity to recast all Americans, even the poor, as investors and capital managers.
  
• Fiscal Stimulus and Poverty by Jason Furman
  JASON FURMAN advocates for an automatically stabilized economy that takes politics out of the equation and helps those who need it most.
  
• Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Harder Than You Think by Ron Haskins
  RON HASKINS tells us why targeted stimulus may reduce poverty in the short run but cannot substitute for investments that will reduce inequality in the long run.
• Widening Inequality Means a Democracy at Risk by Benjamin Friedman
  BENJAMIN FRIEDMAN explains why antipoverty initiatives may flounder when large swaths of the populations are not benefiting from economic growth.
  
• The Politics of Fighting Poverty in Faltering Economies by William A. Galston
  WILLIAM A. GALSTON discusses the most promising political strategies for fighting poverty when budget dollars are scarce.

Interventions

• Creating Second Chances by Devah Pager
  The Second Chance Act takes the problems of prisoner re-entry head on. But is it enough? Devah Pager outlines policies for prisoner re-entry that can really work.