Partnering and Parenting in Poverty: A Qualitative Analysis of a Relationship Skills Program for Low‐Income,Unmarried Families

Since the mid‐1990s, the federal government has funded numerous relationship skills programs, including some specifically targeting low‐income, unmarried parents, in an effort to strengthen couples’ relationships and increase family stability. The previous research on the effectiveness of these interventions has revealed mixed results about whether such programs can improve the relationships of lower income couples who tend to experience lower relationship quality, lower marriage rates, and higher rates of relationship dissolution. This article draws on in‐depth qualitative data collected during an 18‐month ethnographic study of one federally funded relationship skills program for unmarried, low‐income couples expecting a new baby. Overall, though parents found the financial management lessons included in the classes only minimally useful, if at all, they found other aspects of the program particularly useful for three main reasons: (1) classes allowed parents to focus exclusively on their couple relationships in ways they rarely did otherwise; (2) program incentives helped parents make financial ends meet that month; and (3) parents learned that the challenges they personally experienced were often endemic to the romantic and co‐parenting relationships of unmarried parents who have few resources and experience more challenges that tend to undermine relationship quality, such as financial stress and relational ambiguity. Engaging with other couples around shared challenges normalized couples’ relationship problems and lessened the resentment and animosity that typically characterized their partner interactions. These findings have important implications for healthy marriage and relationship policy. Program developers should avoid lessons that imply low‐income, unmarried parents’ spending habits and family‐formation decisions are deficient. Interventions should instead encourage couples to discuss their shared challenges and minimize their tendency to individualize relational and financial strain.     

Bureaucratic Responsiveness to LGBT Americans

Marriage rights were extended to same-sex couples in the United States in 2015. However, anecdotes of bureaucratic noncompliance (in the form of bias or denial of license issuance) raise the possibility that de jure marriage equality has not led to equality in practice. We investigate this by conducting a nationwide audit experiment of local-level marriage license–granting officials in the United States. These officials vary in the constituencies they serve, as well as how they are selected, allowing us to evaluate long-standing hypotheses about bureaucratic responsiveness. Overall, we find no evidence of systematic discrimination against same-sex couples—regardless of responsiveness measure, institutions, ideology, or prior state legal history. We find, however, that among same-sex couples, officials tended to be more responsive to lesbian couples. In contrast to evidence in other areas of service provision, such as policing and federal assistance programs, we find bureaucrats tasked with provision of marriage services show little evidence of discrimination.     

Low‐Income Housing Development,Poverty Concentration,and Neighborhood Inequality

Considerable debate exists about the merits of place‐based programs that steer new development, and particularly affordable housing development, into low‐income neighborhoods. Exploiting quasi‐experimental variation in incentives to construct and rehabilitate rental housing across neighborhoods generated by Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program rules, we explore the impacts of subsidized development on local housing construction, poverty concentration, and neighborhood inequality. While a large fraction of rental housing development spurred by the program is offset by a reduction in the number of new unsubsidized units, housing investment under the LIHTC has measurable effects on the distribution of income within and across communities. However, there is little evidence the program contributes meaningfully to poverty concentration or residential segregation.     

The Social and Productive Impacts of Zambia's Child Grant

Accumulated evidence from dozens of cash transfer (CT) programs across the world suggests that there are few interventions that can match the range of impacts and cost‐effectiveness of a small, predictable monetary transfer to poor families in developing countries. However, individual published impact assessments typically focus on only one program and one outcome. This article presents two‐year impacts of the Zambian Government's Child Grant, an unconditional CT to families with children under age 5, across a wide range of domains including consumption, productive activity, and women and children's outcomes, making this one of the first studies to assess both protective and productive impacts of a national unconditional CT program. We show strong impacts on consumption, food security, savings, and productive activity. However, impacts in areas such as child nutritional status and schooling depend on initial conditions of the household, suggesting that cash alone is not enough to solve all constraints faced by these poor, rural households. Nevertheless, the apparent transformative effects of this program suggest that unconditional transfers in very poor settings can contribute to both protection and development outcomes.     

Love,sex and the spaces in-between: Kepri wives and their cross-border husbands

In the Riau Islands of Indonesia significant numbers of women have entered into marriages with men from the nearby countries of Singapore and Malaysia. In many cases, neither spouse migrates after marriage: instead, husband and wife continue to reside in their country of origin. Their close geographical proximity means that the couples can see each other regularly while at the same time taking advantage of the economic opportunities presented by living on different sides of the border. These cross-border marriages challenge the normative model of the nuclear cohabiting couple/family. Our research into the motivations and desires of these cross-border couples living in the Riau borderlands reveals that space and mobility mediate their interactions with the Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian states, thus producing localized accounts of citizenship in which class mobility (rather than physical mobility) becomes the dominant frame through which they view state regulation of marriage and migration. This research challenges the state-centric tendencies in some of the scholarly literature on international and transnational marriage which places overwhelming emphasis on the ability of states to regulate access to citizenship rights. In presenting a view of inconsistent and sometimes incoherent states, we highlight the significant differences between perceptions of state influence and actual state practices in relation to the regulation of international marriages.     

College Guidance for All: A Randomized Experiment in Pre‐College Advising

Pre‐college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing evidence on these programs often uses within‐school randomization where spillovers and alternative supports may confound estimates. We provide the first evidence on a whole school intervention resulting from a school‐level randomized controlled trial in the United States. The college access program we study uses a near‐peer model where a recent college graduate works at the school assisting students in the application and enrollment process. Pooled results across the first three years of program implementation find no significant impacts on overall college enrollment. However, subgroup analyses reveal positive, significant effects among the groups most targeted by the intervention: Hispanic and low‐income students. Most of the impact comes through increasing two‐year college enrollment, but this appears to be new entrants rather than inducing students to move from four‐year to two‐year colleges. The observed positive effects for these subgroups attenuate over time. We attribute this drop in the estimated impact to departures in fidelity of the experiment. Even among the cohorts for which we find positive enrollment impacts, we find no significant impacts on college persistence.     

FIELD NETWORK RESEARCH IN POLICY EVALUATION

The field-network evaluation studies (FNES) approach to policy evaluation research seeks to overcome deficiencies of small-sample case study method and of the large-sample survey research approach. Methodologically, FNES uses many of the familiar techniques of both these approaches interviews, data collection and analysis, limited sampling, field observation, and document analysis. The crucial difference is sample size. The FNES approach using a middle-range sample of 50 to 60 research sites has the advantages of the case study method in being able to provide an in depth account of a program and how it operates, and is sufficiently flexible to permit a shift in the analytical framework as the research proceeds thus overcoming the inflexibility of the instruments of survey research.
Seven major studies employing the FNES approach have been carried out or are underway in the United States of America. The principal components of the methodology are a network of university-based field associates and a central management group. The field associates collect the information and the data using a uniform analytical framework and reporting form. The central staff aggregates these analyses into a single report that cuts across the sample. This approach and the use of a middle-range sample make it possible to draw generalizable conclusions based on the national experience, and also provide sufficient detail to differentiate policy impacts among the sample jurisdictions.     

Impacts of abstinence education on teen sexual activity, risk of pregnancy, and risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

This paper examines the impacts of four abstinence-only education programs on adolescent sexual activity and risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Based on an experimental design, the impact analysis uses survey data collected in 2005 and early 2006 from more than 2,000 teens who had been randomly assigned to either a program group that was eligible to participate in one of the four programs or a control group that was not. The findings show no significant impact on teen sexual activity, no differences in rates of unprotected sex, and some impacts on knowledge of STDs and perceived effectiveness of condoms and birth control pills     

Revisiting the Income Tax Effects of Legalizing Same‐Sex Marriages

In this paper we estimate the impacts on income tax collections of legalizing same‐sex marriage. We utilize new individual‐level data sources to estimate the federal income tax consequences of legalizing same‐sex marriages. These data sources also allow us to estimate the impact of legalization on state income tax collections. We find that 23 states would realize a net fiscal benefit from legalization, while 21 states would experience a decline in revenue. The potential (annual) changes in state tax revenue range from negative $29 million in California to positive $16 million in New York. At the federal level, our estimates suggest an overall reduction in revenues, ranging from a potential loss of $187 million to $580 million. Overall, we find that the federal and state impacts are quite modest. We also find that our estimates are only marginally affected by alternative assumptions about how many same‐sex couples will choose to marry and which partner will claim any children for tax deduction purposes.     

Welfare and child support program knowledge gaps reduce program effectiveness

There is little research on knowledge of the policy rules that could affect individuals, either in general or in evaluations of new programs. The lack of research is surprising, given that knowledge gaps could limit the effectiveness of reforms or lead to incorrect inferences regarding the effects of a policy change. In this article, we use survey data to examine the level and sources of welfare participants' policy knowledge in the context of a substantial change in child support and welfare policy in Wisconsin. We find very low levels of knowledge of child support policy rules. Multivariate analyses suggest that people tend to learn policy rules by experience; we find less consistent support for knowledge being primarily imparted through interactions with caseworkers. A difference‐in‐difference analysis suggests that if participants had been more knowledgeable, program impacts would have been larger. Implications of this research for policy implementation and policy evaluations are discussed. © 2007 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Five‐year effects of an anti‐poverty program on marriage among never‐married mothers

Using data from an experimental evaluation of the New Hope project, an anti‐poverty program that increased employment and income, this study examined the effects of New Hope on entry into marriage among never‐married mothers. Among never‐married mothers, New Hope significantly increased rates of marriage. Five years after random assignment, 21 percent of women assigned to the New Hope condition were married, compared to 12 percent of those assigned to the control group. The New Hope impact on marriage was robust to variations in model specification. The program also increased income, wage growth, and goal efficacy among never‐married mothers, and decreased depression. In non‐experimental analyses, income and earnings were associated with higher probability of marriage and material hardship was associated with lower probability of marriage. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

性别失衡下的中国农村养老及其政策启示

中国社会转型期性别失衡带来的男性婚姻挤压问题对农村养老的影响是中国人口社会可持续发展的重大问题之一。本文利用2008—2010年的三次农村人口专项抽样调查数据,从性别、年代、婚姻、区域、人口流动等多视角综合分析了性别失衡背景下农村居民的养老意愿、代际支持行为以及男性失婚对父母生活满意度的影响,并探讨了婚姻挤压对中国农村养老带来的挑战及政策建议。研究发现,男性婚姻挤压问题已经对农村养老产生了重要影响:大龄未婚男性成为打算依靠政府救济养老的主要人群;大龄未婚男性给予父母的代际支持较弱、父母的生活满意度较低。文章丰富和发展了养老研究的视角,初步识别了性别失衡给农村养老所带来的负面后果,研究有利于进一步认识性别失衡的人口社会后果,并为综合治理性别失衡问题提供现实依据。     

Are State Marriage Initiatives Having an Eff ect ?An Initial Exploration of the Impact on Divorce and Childhood Poverty Rates

The central question addressed by this article is the effect of state-level marriage initiatives on divorce and childhood poverty rates. State divorce rates have been problematic for researchers because of variation across states in the way they are compiled. This research takes a different approach, measuring instead the prevalence of divorce rather than the number of divorces granted in a given state or year. The authors use this indicator, derived from Current Population Survey data, as an outcome measure in a test of marriage initiatives, and as an independent variable in a childhood poverty analysis. The quasi-experimental design employs time-series and cross-section regression analysis. Results show a significant negative effect from marriage initiatives on divorce prevalence, and a significant positive association between divorce prevalence and childhood poverty rates.     

Marriage: Cause or mere indicator of future earnings growth?

The hypothesis that marriage increases men's earnings has contributed to legislative support for the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI). However, previous studies of this phenomenon have not controlled for many relevant characteristics that select men into marriage, nor have they focused on low‐income, unmarried fathers—the population targeted by HMI. We use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which measures many previously unobserved confounders, to test for a relationship between marriage and earnings. We use a variety of analytic strategies to control for selection (including differencing and propensity scores) and find no evidence of an effect of transitions to marriage on the earnings of unmarried fathers that differs from zero, either for the full sample or subsamples defined by race‐ethnic category and baseline cohabitation status. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Devolution: Where's the Revolution?

This study assesses the impacts and implications for U.S. citiesof the set of congressional actions, presidential orders, andjudicial decisions which, together, comprise the so-called "devolutionrevolution." Based on a survey of chief administrative officersof all cities with a population over 100, 000, the study attemptsto assess the impacts of these various devolution policies.Although for a few local officials, devolution policies areseen as being effective; for most, these policies are viewedas having had very little significant policy or programmaticconsequences. The study identifies the characteristics of thosecities where local officials believe devolution policies are,and are not, having significant impacts and conclude that themost important long-term implications of devolution policiesmay be the impacts they are having, and will continue to have,on the changing political and administrative leadership skillsrequired in the urban arena.     

School Vouchers and Student Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Washington,DC

School vouchers are the most contentious form of parental school choice. Vouchers provide government funds that parents can use to send their children to private schools of their choice. Here we examine the empirical question of whether or not a school voucher program in Washington, DC, affected achievement or the rate of high school graduation for participating students. The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) has operated in the nation's capital since 2004, funded by a federal government appropriation. Because the program was oversubscribed in its early years of operation, and vouchers were awarded by lottery, we were able to use the “gold standard” evaluation method of a randomized experiment to determine what impacts the OSP had on student outcomes. Our analysis revealed compelling evidence that the DC voucher program had a positive impact on high school graduation rates, suggestive evidence that the program increased reading achievement, and no evidence that it affected math achievement. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of recent policy developments including the reauthorization of the OSP and the enactment or expansion of more than a dozen school voucher or voucher‐type programs throughout the United States in 2011 and 2012.     

What’s Love Got To Do With It?: Emotion,Rationality, and Framing LGBT Rights

Recent years have a seen a dramatic and rapid shift in attitudes about same-sex marriage—quite possibly one of the largest shifts in public opinion ever recorded. Another shift has occurred regarding the framing of persuasive appeals by gay rights advocacy organizations. Earlier campaigns focused on rationality by highlighting the idea of equal rights for Lesbian Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals; more recent campaigns have focused on love and commitment. Is one type of framing more effective than the other? Are attitudes about marriage equality more likely to shift when arguments are framed rationally or when they are framed emotionally? We conducted a series of randomized experiments to explore these questions. We find that rights are more effective in the abstract but that videos highlighting same-sex couples in loving and committed relationships are more effective than videos focused on rights and equality.     

Ethnic Diversity and Organizational Performance: Assessing Diversity Effects at the Managerial and Street Levels

ABSTRACT

As the public sector workforce becomes more ethnically diverse and as government agencies make attempts to manage that diversity, the importance of understanding how diversity affects workplace interactions and work-related outcomes increases. Little public-sector research has examined the impact of diversity on performance outcomes. This article seeks to fill this gap by studying the effects of the ethnic diversity of managers and street level public officials on work-related outcomes. We use basic in-group/out-group theories from psychology to formulate research questions relating diversity and performance, along with empirical research on the effects of diversity on work-related outcomes. We then use data from schools to test the relationship between ethnic diversity and organizational performance, identifying different impacts for managerial diversity and diversity among teachers. Results are consistent across three different models: manager diversity is routinely non-significant in predicting organizational performance, while teacher diversity has a consistently significant, and negative, impact on performance. These findings suggest that process-oriented problems are causing diverse organizations to experience drawbacks instead of gains, and that any benefit that could be drawn from a diversity of viewpoints is overshadowed by communication and collaboration problems.     

The What,Where, and When of Place-Based Housing Policy’s Neighborhood Effects

Ever-scarce affordable housing production resources, in addition to their primary function of providing housing for those in need, are increasingly enlisted for the dual goals of strengthening distressed communities and increasing access to higher opportunity neighborhoods. Information on spillovers can inform investment decisions over time and across communities. We leverage recent, high-quality research on neighborhood effects of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) production, synthesizing evidence according to neighborhood context. We also summarize the evidence on project features moderating impacts of publicly subsidized, place-based rental housing, in general. We conclude that context matters. Producing LIHTC housing in distressed neighborhoods positively impacts the surrounding neighborhood—in terms of modest property value gains and increased safety. By contrast, higher opportunity neighborhoods experience small property value reductions, and no impacts on crime. Big questions remain, however, about impact heterogeneity—via tenant mix, property design, and ongoing property management, as examples—with the scarcity of systematic data representing one of the field’s largest constraints.