Writing the Dispatch, Scott Winship challenges a new report featured this week in the New York Times that attributes the historic decline in child poverty since the 1990s to expanded social spending. Winship contends that by focusing on income from transfers, the study ignores "the possibility that welfare reform helped poor children by encouraging parental work and marriage and could serve as a model for other programs."

Dalibor Rohac explains the strategic elements of Ukraine's surprising and inspiring turn of the tide against Russia. "One obvious reason," writes Rohac, "is Ukraine's patience and the use of deception" that misdirected Russian forces.

Recent legislation will make billions in federal funding available to the states to spur technological and environmental innovation, according to John P. Bailey. He outlines how states might compete for these funds.

In the inaugural post of AEIdeas' new "Elections and Demography" series, Ruy Teixeira, Karlyn Bowman, and Nate Moore report on polling data that show Hispanic voters' continued shift to the Republican Party.

As the Senate considers legislation that would expand eligibility for Supplement Security Income cash welfare payments, Mark J. Warshawsky proposes reforms to "balance costs with savings, improve fairness and incentives to work, and ease the administrative burden on the Social Security Administration."
 
Angela Rachidi presents evidence that recent increases in federal food assistance expenditures did not reduce food insecurity and identifies the unintended consequences that further expansions could bring.