Search Results
Working Paper
Family characteristics and macroeconomic factors in U. S. intragenerational family income mobility, 1978–2014
Family economic mobility has been a policy concern for decades, with interest heating up further since the 1990s. Using data that tracks individual families? incomes during overlapping 10-year periods from 1978 through 2014, this paper investigates the relationships of factors ? family characteristics and macro influences ? to intragenerational mobility and whether the importance of those factors has changed over time. Family characteristics include both levels of work behavior and family structure and within-period changes in those factors, as well as time-invariant characteristics of the ...
Journal Article
How much do expansions reduce the black-white employment gap?
U. S. family income mobility and inequality, 1994 to 2004
This interactive graphic illustrates the mobility of U.S. families across income classes during the decade. The main finding is that family income mobility is limited: After sorting families observed in both 1994 and 2004 from poorest to richest across five income classes in each year, the data show that 40 percent of U.S. families were in the same income class in 2004 as in 1994 and only 22 percent moved up or down by more than one class. Those who start in the poorest or richest classes are the least likely to move: Over half of these families are in the same class in 2004 as in 1994. ...
Journal Article
New England: the regional recovery
Report
Racial and Socioeconomic Test-Score Gaps in New England Metropolitan Areas: State School Aid and Poverty Segregation
Test-score data show that both low-income and racial-minority children score lower, on average, on states’ elementary-school accountability tests compared with higher-income children or white children. While different levels of scholastic achievement depend on a host of influences, such test-score gaps point toward unequal educational opportunity as a potentially important contributor. This report explores the relationship between racial and socioeconomic test-score gaps in New England metropolitan areas and two factors associated with unequal opportunity in education: state equalizing ...
Working Paper
Designing state aid formulas: the case of a new formula for distributing municipal aid in Massachusetts
This paper designs a new equalization-aid formula based on fiscal gaps of local communities. Using conceptual analysis and simulations with Massachusetts data, the authors illustrate the tradeoffs that policymakers face in deciding on the policy variables in the formula and lay out several general guidelines for setting up these variables. When states are in transition to a new local aid formula, the issue of whether and how to hold existing aid harmless poses a challenge. The authors show that previous studies and the formulas derived from them give differential weights to existing and new ...
Briefing
Additional slack in the economy: the poor recovery in labor force participation during this business cycle
This public policy brief examines labor force participation rates in this recession and recovery and compares them with the cyclical patterns in earlier business cycles. Measured relative to the business cycle peak in March 2001, labor force participation rates almost four years later have not recovered as much as usual, and the discrepancies are large. ; Among age-by-sex groups, the participation shortfall is especially pronounced at young and prime ages: Only for men and women age 55 and older has participation risen more than is usual four years after the business cycle peak. ; The brief ...
Briefing
Massachusetts employment growth 1996–2006: effects of industry performance and industry composition
This brief examines the effects of industry performance and industry composition on overall changes in Massachusetts employment in the period 1996 to 2006. Through 2000, Massachusetts enjoyed strong economic expansion. Around the time of the nationwide recession of 2001, however, the Massachusetts economy experienced a relatively severe setback, and the state has yet to regain as many jobs in the ensuing expansion as it lost in the downturn. ; The study finds that Massachusetts industries generally experienced slower employment growth than their national counterparts in the early 2000s. The ...
Journal Article
Retrospective of the 1980s
Journal Article
School district spending and state aid: why disparities persist
Most decisions about the level of local public school spending are made by local school districts. Their choices are conditioned by local resources and the availability of external funds, mostly from state governments. A major purpose of this substantial state aid is to further the goal of equal educational opportunity by helping to make spending more equal in rich and poor districts. ; This article investigates the link between school spending disparities and state school aid by using data on school finances and community attributes to model the determinants of per-pupil operating spending ...