Lessons From Research on Reducing Child Poverty

Episode Details

With over 1 in 7 children living in poverty in 2019, the United States is an outlier among rich nations. It doesn’t have to be this way, according to University of California, Berkeley professor Hilary Hoynes. Hilary has dedicated her career to studying poverty in America and is co-author of a 2019 National Academy of Sciences report tasked with identifying evidence-based policies that could reduce child poverty by 50% within 10 years. 

As she outlines to EconoFact Chats host Michael Klein, poverty has seen strong declines in the United States when the economy has experienced very strong labor markets and wage growth, as well as when policies that directly target reducing poverty have been expanded. The discussion also focuses on the most important programs the U.S. has for combating child poverty, how the new policies from the Biden administration fit in, and why this matters.