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RESEARCH MAKING THE NEWS


Policy Research: College Promise Programs Are Excluding Student Parents

Pearl Stewart ││ June 27, 2019


Twenty percent of college students in the United States are raising children, yet the much-touted “free college” initiatives, also known as Promise programs, often “unintentionally exclude” these students when offering financial support, according to a briefing paper released this week by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).


The institute’s analysis pointed out various restrictions and requirements in the college Promise programs that exclude students who may be most in need of support. Among the more than 300 college Promise programs in 44 states, the majority exclude students over the age of 25 – making many students who have started families ineligible for Promise financial assistance, the Washington-based policy institute reported.


Citing: Making “Free College” Programs Work for College Students with Children by Tessa Hotlzman, Lindsey Reichlin Cruse, and Barbara Gault at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, June 25, 2019


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Report: Women’s Health Could Be Improved by Medicaid Expansion, Rural Health Investments

Johanna Cano│ │June 26, 2019


The report, completed by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), analyzes data on women’s health including chronic disease, physical health and sexual health, among other indicators. [….] “While this report is called the 'Status of Women,' we know that improving the health and wellness of women in our state is not just a women's issue, but rather an issue that is creating healthier families and communities, contributing to a stronger and healthier workforce and helping to grow the state's economy,” said Machelle Sanders, N.C. Department of Administration secretary.

The report found that the health of women in the state has improved in some areas since a previous 2013 report, but in other areas, it has remained the same or worsened, particularly in rural counties, Sanders said.


Citing: Status of Women in North Carolina: Health and Wellness by Elyse Shaw and Adiam Tesfaselassie at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, June 25, 2019


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The Problem with Diversity in Computing

Ian Bogost ││ June 25, 2019.


At Google, for example, more than 95 percent of technical workers are white or Asian. Adding more black engineers from Atlanta schools to that mix will certainly help push the numbers up incrementally. It will also give more people of color access to the economic opportunities the tech industry offers. But there’s a risk of tokenization; inviting a black man or a curly-haired woman into the room could make a difference in the design of the systems that produced Webb’s experience at airport security. But it probably won’t substantially change the thrust of the tech industry as it currently operates.


Citing: Google Diversity Annual report 2019 at Google


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Lack of Medicaid Coverage Blocked 29 Percent of Abortion Seekers from Getting the Procedure, Study Says

Anna North ││ June 20, 2019


But amid this debate, there’s been a lack of up-to-date research on what actually happens to pregnant people when they want an abortion but their insurance won’t cover it. To answer that question, researchers at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a group at the University of California San Francisco, surveyed pregnant women in Louisiana on whether they had ever considered abortion. For those who considered the procedure but didn’t have one, researchers asked if lack of Medicaid coverage was part of the reason why. The research, published on Wednesday in the journal BMC Women’s Health, was provided to Vox exclusively ahead of publication.


Citing: Estimating the proportion of Medicaid-Eligible Pregnant Women in Louisiana Who Do Not Get Abortion When Medicaid Does Not Cover Abortion by Sarah Roberts, Nicole Johns, Valerie Williams, Erin Wingo and Ushma Upadhyay at BMC Women’s Health, May, 2019


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No Rest for the Workers: How the US is Out of Step on Paid Leave

Mona Chalabi ││ June 18, 2019


Of the 21 wealthiest countries, the US is the only one not to guarantee workers paid leave, according to a recent report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research which dubbed it “no vacation nation”.


Citing: No-Vacation Nation, Revised by Adewale Maye at Center for Economic and Policy Research, May, 2019.


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NEW RESEARCH REPORTS


A Women-Centered Economic Agenda: 8 Policies that Boost the Economy and Work for Everyone

Elyse Shaw and Heidi Hartmann │Institute for Women’s Policy Research│ June 20, 2019


Ensuring that a growing economy is equitable and benefits all workers is an important policy priority for all elected officials. Given that women’s earnings and economic security are central to the health and well-being of U.S. households and the overall economy, each election cycle presents an opportunity to highlight the policies that would help women have access to the jobs and benefits workers need to ensure economic security for themselves and their families.


This fact sheet outlines eight key policy priorities that are critical for increasing women’s economic opportunities and securing their futures.


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Access to Paid Sick Time in Bernalillo County, New Mexico

Kimberly Mckee, Jeff Hayes and Jessica Milli│ Institute for Women’s Policy Research │June 18, 2019


Approximately 35 percent of workers living in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, lack paid sick time, and among those, low-income and part-time workers are especially unlikely to be covered. Access to paid sick time promotes safe and healthy work environments by reducing the spread of illness and preventing workplace injuries. It also reduces health care costs and supports children and families by helping parents to fulfill their caregiving responsibilities. This briefing paper presents estimates of access to paid sick time in Bernalillo County by sex, race and ethnicity, occupation, part/full-time employment status, and personal earnings through analysis of government data sources, including the 2015–2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS).


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Paid Family Leave and Breastfeeding: Evidence from California

Jessica Pac, Ann Bartel, Christopher Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel | The National Bureau of Economics Research | April 2019


This paper evaluates the effect of Paid Family Leave (PFL) on breastfeeding, which we identify using California’s enactment of a 2004 PFL policy that ensured mothers up to six weeks of leave at a 55 percent wage replacement rate. We employ synthetic control models for a large, representative sample of over 270,000 children born between 2000 and 2012 drawn from the restricted-use versions of the 2003 – 2014 National Immunization Surveys. Our estimates indicate that PFL increases the overall duration of breastfeeding by nearly 18 days, and the likelihood of breastfeeding for at least six months by 5 percentage points. We find substantially larger effects of PFL on breastfeeding duration for some disadvantaged mothers.



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Young Workers in Nonstandard Work Arrangements, 2005-2017

Aaron Medlin and Hye Jin Rho │ Center for Economic and Policy Research │June 24, 2019


Washington DC — Millennials and Gen X workers are overwhelmingly opting for standard permanent jobs in a business directed by an employer. Only 1.0 percent of young workers are engaged in electronically mediated, or gig, work.

This is the main finding of Young Workers in Nonstandard Work Arrangements, 2005 - 2017, published today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). More specifically, a majority of young workers, ages 21–25, with and without a college degree, are in standard work arrangements and are more likely to hold such jobs compared to the workforce as a whole. The much-hyped growth of the gig economy cannot be found in the 2017 survey of nonstandard work arrangements.


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Paid Family Care Leave: A Missing Piece in the U.S. Social Insurance System

Jane Waldfogel and Emma Liebman │ Washington Center for Equitable Growth │June 10, 2019


Paid family and medical leave includes several distinct types of leave. Medical leave is taken from work to care for one’s own serious illness, but family leave encompasses several distinct types of leave, including leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child (generally referred to as parental leave), as well as leave to care for a family member with a serious illness, whether that be a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, or other relative. This latter type of leave is our definition of family care leave—the focus of this report.


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The Long-Term Impacts of Girl-Friendly Schools: Evidence from the BRIGHT School Construction Program in Burkina Faso

Nicholas Ingwersen, Harounan Kazianga, Leigh L. Linden, Arif Mamun, Ali Protik, and Matthew Sloan│ The National Bureau of Economic Research │ June, 2019


We evaluate the long-term effects of a “girl-friendly” primary school program in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design. Ten years later, primary school-age children in villages selected for the program attend school more often and score significantly higher on standardized tests. We also find long-term effects on academic and social outcomes for children exposed earlier in the program. Secondary-school–age youths and young adults (those old enough to have finished secondary school) complete primary and secondary school at higher rates and perform significantly better on standardized tests. Women old enough to have completed secondary school delay both marriage and childbearing.


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The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that conducts and communicates research to inspire public dialogue, shape policy, and improve the lives and opportunities of women of diverse backgrounds, circumstances, and experiences. Find out more about IWPR at iwpr.org.
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