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Dodging the “Doom Loop”: How Local Funding for Ohio’s Public Schools Might Be Protected Against a Decline in Commercial Property Values
How much would a potential decline in commercial property values affect funding for Ohio’s public schools? This District Data Brief takes a closer look.
SORCE Insights: Expected Impacts of Higher Tariffs and Changes to Immigration Policy
The Cleveland Fed’s Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE) administered in May 2025 asked respondents from across the Fourth District a set of special questions about the potential impacts of higher tariffs and changes to immigration policy on their businesses. This District Data Brief analyzes their responses.
Manufacturing Employment Trends in the Fourth District
In this District Data Brief, we use data from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators to examine changes in the number of manufacturing jobs and the characteristics of the manufacturing workforce across the Fourth District from 2002 through 2024.
Working Paper
Work, Poverty, and Social Benefits Over the Past Three Decades
Understanding the evolving interactions between employment, social benefits, and families' well-being is key to designing better policies to both protect families and foster economic growth. Employment both overall and among those living in low-income families has been on a downward trajectory across the last three decades. One notable exception is that low-income women with children were increasingly likely to work between 1992 and 1999 in the aftermath of large changes to social safety net programs to provide more incentives and rewards for work. Since then, low-income women with children ...
Working Paper
Are Friends of Schools the Enemies of Equity? The Interplay of School Funding Policies and External Fundraising
School districts across the US have adopted funding policies designed to distribute resources more equitably across schools. Concurrently, schools are increasing external fundraising efforts to supplement district budget allocations. We document both funding policies and fundraising efforts in Chicago Public Schools. We find that adoption of a weighted-student funding policy reallocated more dollars to schools with high shares of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch, creating a policy-induced per-pupil expenditure gap. Further, almost all schools raised external funds over the study ...
Journal Article
The Expansion of High School Choice in Chicago Public Schools
Public school choice in Chicago has been in existence for more than 30 years and has noticeably expanded over the past 15 years. In 1987, United States Secretary of Education William Bennett labeled Chicago?s public schools the ?worst in the nation.? At that time, reportedly one-half of Chicago?s 64 high schools ranked in the bottom 1 percent on the ACT among schools that administered the test.1 Bennett further said Chicago parents should consider private school options, arguing that increased competition from private schools would improve the performance of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). ...
Journal Article
Private school location and neighborhood characteristics
Any voucher program that is going to have a major impact on the public education system is likely to require an expansion of private schools in order to accommodate increased demand; however, very little is known about where private schools open and, therefore, how a major voucher program might affect private school availability in various communities. This article examines the relationship between the location of private schools and local neighborhood characteristics, hoping to shed some light on how a universal school voucher program might change the private school composition of local ...
Journal Article
Child care costs and the return-to-work decisions of new mothers
Women's labor force participation has nearly doubled in the past 50 years. The increase has been even more dramatic for women with young children, and recent reforms to welfare programs are likely to push the participation rate for this segment even higher. This article examines the economic determinants of a woman's decision to return to work quickly following childbirth, looking in particular at sensitivity to child care costs.
Journal Article
School vouchers: recent findings and unanswered questions
The authors review the existing literature on the impact of school vouchers on student achievement. They conclude that expectations about the ability of vouchers to drastically improve student achievement, at least as measured by test scores, should be tempered by the results of the studies to date. Also, there is very little evidence about the potential for public schools to respond to increased competitive pressure generated by vouchers.
Journal Article
Is the official unemployment rate misleading? a look at labor market statistics over the business cycle
While maximum unemployment rates following the most recent economic recession are low by historical standards, the lack of increase in payroll employment leads many to conclude that official unemployment rates understate current labor market weakness. This article compares other labor market statistics during the current period with earlier recoveries. While the level of the current unemployment rate may not directly comparable with earlier periods, additional labor market evidence discussed here suggests that the current labor market may be stronger than in previous recovery periods of the ...