Through lecture and discussion this course will address issues relating to wealth and income inequality in American society, the definition of poverty, the composition of the poverty population, and the causes of poverty. Evidence will examined regarding trends in inequality, duration of poverty spells, repeat stays on welfare, and the perpetuation of inequality across generations. We will also consider various programmatic strategies that have been offered to reduce the incidence of poverty in America.

The practicum is intended to be a "hands on" endeavor for the student in the formulation and execution of a research study. Therefore, the substantive material will occupy half of the class time of each meeting. The remaining time will be given to descriptions of several large data sets which contain information on inequality and poverty issues, and which will be made available for class use (e.g., National Survey of Families and Households; Panel Study of Income Dynamics; Survey of Income and Program Participation). Either individually, or in teams, students will formulate research projects and undertake analyses from one or more of the data sets. Substantial class time will be devoted to assisting students with project formulation and providing advise on analytic procedures. Computer time will be made available for the projects and a teaching assistant, attached to the course, will assist with programming and statistical issues.

A written research paper at the end of the semester will be required from each student or team.

PREREQUISITES: One year of prior statistical study in U6310-U6311 or an equivalent course. Some familiarity with a statistical software package, such as SPSS or SAS is desirable.

The first six books are required, the others are optional. All are on reserve in Lehman Library, along with the papers cited in the reading list and codebooks for the data sets.

1. Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Petersen (eds.). The Urban Underclass. Washington D.C.: Brookings. 1991.

2. Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro. Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge. 1995.

3. Edward Wolff. Top Heavy. New York: New Press. 1996.

4. Lawrence C. Hamilton. Statistics with Stata 5. Brooks Cole/ITP. 1998.

5. A. Bryman and D. Cramer. Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS 10.0 for Windows. Taylor and Francis. 2000.

6. Paul Ryscavage, Income Inequality in America. Armonk: M. Sharpe. 1999.

7. Robert Ferber and Werner Hirsch. Social Experimentation and Economic Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1982.

8. Charles Murray. Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980. New York: Basis Books. 1984.

1. Overview of the course; discussion of types of projects that a student might undertake; description of the various data sets prepared for class use; strategies in the formulation of student projects.

2. Measurement issues in the study of income, wealth, poverty, and inequality. The Pen parade, Lorenz curve, and Gini coefficient. Discussion of student projects.

Paul Ryscavage, Income Inequality, Chaps. 1,2.

Lars Osberg, Economic Inequality in the United States, Chaps. 2,3,4.

3. Income stratification. Trends in the distribution of income and earnings in the United States. Determinants of income attainment. Racial disparities in income. Discussion of data sets for course projects.

Paul Ryscavage, Income Inequality, Chaps. 4,5.

Gerhard Lenski, “Income stratification in the United States.” Pp. 173-

205 in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.

4. Trends in the distribution of household wealth in the United States. The components of wealth. Racial disparities in wealth holdings. Tax policies and wealth inequality. Discussion of projects.

Edward Wolff, Top Heavy, pp. 1-32, 59-72.

Oliver and Shapiro, Black Wealth, White Wealth, Chaps. 1-4.

5. Living standards in the American population. The role of intergenerational transfers of wealth and other forms of parental assistance in the determination of living standards.

Seymour Spilerman. 2000. “Wealth and Stratification Processes.” Pp. 497-524 in Annual Review of Sociology.

Seymour Spilerman 2001. “Parental wealth and living standards in Israel.” (mimeo.)

6. Theories of Poverty. Formulations based on characteristics of individuals versus formulations that stress structural factors. Poverty and racial discrimination. Poverty, education, and employment. Skill needs for the 21st century. Consideration of data analytic strategies.

Paul E. Petersen, "The Urban Underclass and the Poverty Paradox." Pp. 3-27 in Jencks and Petersen (eds.), The Urban Underclass.

Richard B. Freeman, "Employment and Earnings of Disadvantaged Young Men." Pp. 103-121 in Jencks and Petersen (eds.), The Urban Underclass.

Charles Murray, Losing Ground, Chaps. 3-5.

7. The causes and concomitants of poverty: research findings. Poverty and the inner city; rates of school completion; trends in marriage rates and out-of-wedlock births. Implications of the trends. Poverty and crime.

Greg J. Duncan and Saul D. Hoffman, "Teenage Underclass Behavior and Subsequent Poverty: Have the Rules Changed?" Pp. 155-174 in Jencks and Petersen (eds.), The Urban Underclass.

Robert D. Mare and Christopher Winship, "Socioeconomic Change and the Decline of Marriage for Blacks and Whites." Pp. 175-203 in Jencks and Petersen (eds.), The Urban Underclass.

Jonathan Crane "Effects of Neighborhoods on Dropping Out of School and Teenage Childbearing." Pp. 299-320 in Jencks and Petersen eds.), The Urban Underclass.

8. Programmatic responses to poverty. Strategies for addressing the "causes" of poverty versus strategies for maintaining the welfare of the poor. Federal programs such as AFDC. Welfare programs. Head Start. Job training programs.

Theda Skocpol, "Targeting Within Universalism: Politically Viable

Policies to Combat Poverty in the United States." Pp. 411-436 in Jencks and Petersen (eds.), The Urban Underclass.

Robert Greenstein, "Universal and Targeted Approaches to Relieving

Poverty: An Alternative View." Pp. 437-459 in Jencks and Petersen (eds.), The Urban Underclass.

9. The social experiments and what has been learned from them. The Negative Income Tax Experiments. School voucher experiments. Housing voucher experiments. The role of experimentation in formulating complex social programs. Strategies and problems in program evaluation.

Robert Ferber and Werner Hirsch, Social Experimentation and Economic Policy. Chaps. 1-5, 9, 10. 

P. K. Robbins. "A comparison of Labor Supply Findings from the Four Negative Tax Experiments." Journal of Human Resources (20), pp. 567-583.

10. New Directions in poverty research and poverty policy. Asset building strategies.

Charles Murray, Losing Ground, Chaps. 15-17.

Oliver and Shapiro, Black Wealth, White Wealth, Chap. 7.

11. Presentations and discussion of student research projects.