News

UK Professors Among Researchers Nationwide Funded to Study Economic Inequality

July 2018

UKCPR research affiliate Christopher Bollinger, in collaboration with UKCPR director James Ziliak, were among a select group of recipients of a grant from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Their project will help resolve a debate in the literature about whether earnings volatility has increased or decreased over the past decade, using unique data from the Census Bureau and Social Security Administration. A link to the full press release may be found here.

Webinar: The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act And Its Implications For Low-Income Households

February 2018

In this webinar, Elaine Maag of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research will discuss the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and its anticipated impacts on low-income households in the United States. The presenters will discuss key components of the new tax law and offer projections showing its likely effects on low-income households in the coming decade. Finally, they will discuss the broader implications of the shift in tax policy, including how changes in government funding may matter for other programs and initiatives relevant to low-income Americans.

Current Issue of Pathways Magazine Result of UKCPR Conference

January 2018

"The Next Round of Welfare Reform," the current issue of Pathways, a magazine published by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, is a result of a conference co-organized by James Ziliak of UKCPR, Marianne Bitler of University of California-Davis, Ron Haskins of Brookings Institution, and Hilary Hoynes of University of California-Berkeley. The issue, which discusses the future of welfare reform, features articles from many of the panels from the conference, held on September 22, 2016 at Brookings.  The topics include the effects of welfare reform on child well-being, marriage and families, work and poverty, and state policy choices.  More information about the current issue of Pathways may be found here.

James Ziliak to Discuss the Rural-Urban Divide November 29

November 2017

James Ziliak will participate in a webinar discussing the economic, labor force, and social welfare implications of America's rural-urban divide.  The webinar, based on an issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science co-edited by Ziliak and Daniel Lichter of Cornell University, will also feature Lichter as well as Shannon Monnat, a public health policy researcher at Syracuse University, and Mark Partridge, a development economist at The Ohio State University.  The webinar will be from 12:00-1:00 PM EST on November 29.  Registration, and more information, may be found here.

Ziliak and Gundersen featured in Washington Post report

August 2017

James Ziliak's work on senior hunger, co-authored with University of Illinois Prof. Craig Gundersen, was featured in the Washington Post on Aug. 17, 2017.  The Post article in Peter Whoriskey's Wonkblog  discusses recent trends in food insecurity for people over 60. The 2015 annual report by Ziliak and Gundersen, prepared for Feeding America and the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger, finds that rates of food insecurity have remained persistently high following the Great Recession, and that the recovery's effects seem to be the weakest for older Americans.  "There was no significant decline in seniors facing hunger," said Ziliak.

Op-ed by James Ziliak appears in the Huffiington Post

July 2017

An op-ed written by James Ziliak was recently featured on the Huffington Post.  The article, "SNAP Works", discusses the effectiveness of SNAP as public assistance program in light of recently proposed legislation designed to limit spending on public assistance. The “Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act” by Congressman Jim Jordan and Senator Mike Lee is designed to curtail spending on SNAP and increase work requirements for recipients.  Ziliak argues these work requirements put excessive burden on single parent households and are "based on the false premise that too many are receiving benefits for too long and without work. The evidence does not support this claim."  The full article may be read here.

James Ziliak co-edits volume of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

July 2017

A new volume of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, co-edited by James Ziliak of UKCPR, is now available.  The volume (672, Issue 1) is titled The Rural-Urban Interface: New Patterns of Spatial Interdependence and Inequality in America, and examines the disparities in inequality, and social, economic, and political hierarchies between rural and urban America.  The volume, based on a conference co-organized by UKCPR in 2016, also documents the fluidity of rural-urban boundaries and the implications for research programs and public policy.  More information about the volume may be found here.

UKCPR Co-Organizes "Deep Poverty in the United States" Conference, June 27-28

June 2017

UKCPR co-organized the conference "Deep Poverty in the United States" with the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty and the Urban Institute, on June 27-28, 2017, at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC.  The conference identified those in deep poverty and the issues they face.  The conference allowed researchers and practitioners interested in poverty issues to form connections and identify opportunities and implications for policy, practice, and research.  For more information, please see the agenda.

James Ziliak Discusses the Trump Budget Proposal on the Safety Net

June 2017

James Ziliak was recently featured on Marketplace, Vox, and The New York Times discussing President Trump's budget proposal stipulations for safety net programs.

UKCPR announces grantees for research on food security using the PSID

June 2017

The University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service and Food and Nutrition Service, is funding five studies in 2017-18 to analyze food security using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). These projects focus on economic analyses of longitudinal household food insecurity and its links to food assistance program participation, work, income, consumption, health, and wealth.

All projects utilize PSID data. The USDA has sponsored the 18-item food security module in the 1999, 2001, 2003, 2015, and 2017 main family surveys, as well as the 1997 and 2014 Child Development Supplement.

Our funded projects include the following:

The long-term Health consequences of childhood food insecurity -- Angela R. Fertig, Medica Research Institute