Research

2021

2020

• Network Structures: Buildings, Publics, and the Internet
• Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office: Racial Equity Study and Criminal Justice Dashboard
• Valuing the Costs and Benefits of Free Mobile Care for Pregnant Mothers and Infants
• MIHP for All: Exploring the Impact of Universal Maternal and Infant Home Visiting on Health Outcomes
• Benefits Coach Pilot
• Partnerships that Support Confident Use and Management of Point-of-Use Drinking Water Units in Flint Many Flint residents still do not have confidence in the quality of their municipal drinking water, despite the use of filtration systems. This project aims to support progress within the Flint community to build knowledge of point-of-use water filtration systems designed to provide clean drinking water for Flint students and residents and to promote confidence…
• How Students Make College Decisions: The Role of Family, School and Financial Aid Provision The project: This project aimed to better understand how students make decisions about what to pursue after high school, and the role of family, school, geographic context, and available financial aid in shaping those decisions. The process: The research pilot, which was later expanded to an ongoing study, consisted of interviews with 36 University of…
• Evaluating violence-reduction and summer youth employment programs This grant will allow Sara Heller, an assistant professor of economics at U-M, to expand on three current research projects that can provide evidence to guide the development of effective interventions aimed at low-income youth.  Evaluation of Philadelphia WorkReady: Heller ran a randomized controlled trial of Philadelphia’s youth summer job program, called WorkReady, in the…
• Systems and structures of poverty - the profit of debt The project: Household debt has been on the rise in the U.S. for the past three decades. These debts accrue in a variety of ways from attempting to climb the ladder of opportunity (student loans), seeking stability for one’s family (housing), making ends meet when money is tight (credit cards), getting sick or injured (health…
• The Effect of COVID-19 on Food Insecurity in the United States The project: The COVID-19 pandemic and the societal changes it has prompted in the United States are profoundly and quickly changing American life. This research aimed to measure the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on food insecurity in the United States. The process: Wave one of a survey of adults with low incomes (which began…
• Program on Equity In Child Health (PECH) at Mott Hospital This project aims to examine the potential for inequity resulting from variation in the actual care provided by clinicians and hospital personnel to children and their families. Considerable research demonstrates differences by gender, income, race and ethnicity in the way adult patients are provided care across numerous conditions (e.g., heart attacks, treatment for pain, diagnostic…
• Time dollars as alternative currency to address transportation scarcity within Detroit’s low-income communities People living in poverty have limited access to financial resources that permits economic exchange. In turn, this limits formal economic participation. Prior research has shown that alternative, local currency systems, used alongside national currency systems (like USD), can enhance local economies by helping people experiencing poverty initiate or participate in economically productive activities. In the…
• Addressing the Need and Identifying the Root Causes of the Intersection of Food and Transportation Insecurity: The City of Detroit Food Delivery Program (Re)Design The project: The COVID-19 pandemic is creating conditions in Detroit and across the country that have led to novel cases of need at the intersection of food and transportation insecurity. In response, the City of Detroit’s Parks & Recreation Division and Innovation Team, in partnership with Gleaners, United Way for Southeastern Michigan, Wayne Metropolitan Community…
• Disparate Distress:  An Oversample of African Americans and Latinos in the United States for "People and Pandemics: Studying International Coping and Compliance" The project: The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially damaging to communities of color in the United States. Disproportionate rates of illness and death have combined with higher rates of unemployment, precarious access to medical care, and overburdened supportive services to intensify the impact on Black and Latino individuals, families, and neighborhoods.  An especially important case…
• Youth Voice in Poverty Solutions The project: Young people should participate in institutions and decisions that affect their lives, but youth are not usually involved when adults make anti-poverty policy decisions. The purpose of the project is to amplify the voices of young people in community-based strategies against poverty. The process: Researchers worked with adult advisers at several schools and…
• Improving Coordination to Reduce Service Gaps and Increase Efficacy in Child and Family Homelessness Policy and Programming The project: The national system for preventing and addressing homelessness, known as the Continuum of Care (CoC), is not well understood, and the capacity of these systems to successfully address homelessness has never been evaluated. The Continuums of Care are most often locally-organized groups of actors that receive funding from the federal government to create and…
• Potential health gains from income and wealth tax proposals in the U.S. The project: Presidential candidates in the 2020 election have made income inequality a major issue. While many candidates have introduced comprehensive tax policies, there has been little research done to understand the impact of income gains from various tax policy proposals on long-term health outcomes. This study is designed to collate evidence around the link…
• Understanding How Poverty Affects Water Affordability in Detroit The project: Water affordability and access in the City of Detroit is a growing concern for city officials, area residents, and community groups working in the city. In this project, the researcher will work with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), Office of Sustainability, and the Detroit Health Department (DHD) to examine how the…

2019

• Work Related Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Unemployed Homeless Persons with Anxiety and Depression
• “It Depends”: How Discretion in the Financial System Contributes to Exclusion and Marginalization The project: Access to banking and credit are important tools in overcoming poverty. But studies have shown that bias plays a role in the banking system, which may impact consumers most in need of financial services. This project gathered in-depth, qualitative information about the impact of decision-making among front-line financial service employees. Employees that regularly…
• Positive Organizational Work Experiences as an Antidote to Poverty and Exploitation The project: Work can be a vehicle for dehumanization of workers — think human trafficking, or even legitimate opportunities that use workers as commodities. Moreover, in vulnerable populations in particular, the realities of housing, transportation, or childcare may serve as critical barriers to employment. This project aimed to to study how positive organizations instill work with…
• Impacts of Skilling and Employment Opportunities on Female Rural-to-Urban Migrant Workers and their Families: A Randomized Controlled Trial The project: Labor-intensive manufacturing is growing rapidly in developing countries. Yet significant wage gaps exist both across geographic and gender boundaries: the urban-rural wage gap is as high as 45% in some areas of India. Industries that specifically carry disproportionate amounts of female employees, such as garment production, could provide a way to enhance successful…
• Exploration of Jobs for Michigan Graduates: Trauma as a Barrier to Economic and Labor Market Opportunity The project: Within the Midwest, Michigan has the highest rate of youth disconnected from the educational and work opportunities necessary for adult well-being. Trauma may well be a crucial player in this disconnect, contributing to later experiences of poverty. New research has shed light on the potential of trauma-informed care (TIC) and Restorative Practices (RP) to…
• The Performance of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance System The project: Unemployment Insurance (UI) has historically provided stability to families through periods of economic hardship, keeping 3.2 million individuals out of poverty nationally in 2010. Since then, a variety of reforms reduced the duration of benefit eligibility by six weeks and restricted eligibility for UI, spiking the rate of claims denials to 41% by…

2018

• Breaking the “Starving Student” Myth: Understanding and Addressing Food Insecurity Needs on Campus The project: Food insecurity, a condition of limited or uncertain access to nutritious food, is a critical issue for students’ health, academic achievement, and future well-being. Recent studies, including one conducted at the University of Michigan in 2015, have shown unprecedented high levels of food insecurity on college campuses. The process: This mixed-methods project assessed…
• Food Finder Pilot Partnership According to the USDA, 15.6 million households were food insecure at some point in 2016. For these households, sources of free food – like food banks, churches, and other nonprofit organizations – are critical to their day-to-day survival. Food Finder, a nonprofit organization, is already working to create the first fully verified database of free…
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Bioretention Rain Gardens in Removing Pollutants Associated with Tire Dumping and Roadside Pollution The project: Environmental justice research has shown that low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, such as those in Southwest Detroit, are more likely to experience higher levels of pollution. In Southwest Detroit, residential and commercial areas are in close proximity to ongoing heavy industries and high-volume transportation corridors, increasing concerns about the local air and…
• Eliminating the Path to Energy Poverty: A Multi-State Analysis of Equity in Energy Efficiency Investments The project: Energy poverty, or the gap in energy affordability, is a burden on low-income households amounting to millions of dollars in utility arrears. This burden negatively impacts a household’s long-term health, education, employment, and financial stability. Energy efficiency offers an opportunity to address energy poverty through energy waste reduction measures such as LED lighting, energy-efficient…
• The Politics of Technology for the Poor: Between India and the World The project: Technological innovation seems to have enormous potential to improve the lives of the poor, from improving sanitation to increasing access to education. But these interventions often have limited user interest and uptake. This project examined whether we can do a better job of leveraging technology for the poor, with a specific focus in…
• Helping Across Generations: An Exploratory Study of Blue Collar Workers’ Retirement Well-Being The project: With today’s young adults facing increasing financial pressures, it is parents that often come to the rescue. Older adults from working-class backgrounds often provide help to their adult children and extended families, which can affect family relationships and their own economic well-being, particularly in retirement. This project explored the impacts of these arrangements…
• Can Peer Support Specialists Deliver Technology-Based Job Interview Training for People with Psychiatric Disabilities? An Assessment of Community Needs and Priorities The project: People living with serious mental illness disproportionately live in chronic poverty; conversely, poverty is a risk factor for mental health problems. While 70% of people with serious mental illness want to work, only 10-15% are employed, in part because social and cognitive challenges may interfere with finding a job. This project explored innovative ways…
• How Does Unintended Pregnancy Affect the Outcomes of Older Children? Evidence from a New Randomized Control Trial The project: In the United States, nearly half of pregnancies are unintended, and unintended pregnancies occur five times more often among poor compared to affluent women. The consequences of unintended pregnancy for women’s education and earnings are substantial, and children born as a result of unintended pregnancy are much more likely to live in poverty…
• Charting How Wealth Shapes Educational Pathways from Childhood to Early Adulthood: A Developmental Process Model The project: Wealth plays a pervasive and pernicious role in transmitting inequality. Wealth (assets like savings and financial holdings such as housing) differs from income (wages, salaries, and cash assistance from the government) and is generally more unequally distributed than income. This contributes to widening social inequality, including impacts on educational attainment. Wealth demonstrably impacts youth…

2017

• Targeting Poverty in the Courts: Improving the Measurement of Ability to Pay The project: In March 2015, the U.S. Justice Department issued a scathing report that outlined the systematic criminalization of offenses like parking and minor traffic tickets and even unmowed lawns. Fines and failure to pay result in cascading consequences that illustrate the legal cost of being poor: mounting fines and late fees, license suspensions, and…
• Poor, Invisible, and Left Behind: Understanding Financial Instability, Material Hardship, and the Availability and Use of Community Resources among Low-Income Rural Households The project: More than 85% of persistently poor counties in the U.S. are rural, and yet, researchers and policymakers overwhelmingly focus on urban poverty. This study set out to gain a better understanding of the factors likely to contribute to material hardship and financial instability in rural areas and to assess the availability of community…
• Improving Employability via Physical Crowdsourced Tasks The project: Digital technologies that support employment -- like LinkedIn and Massive Open Online Courses -- are primarily used by individuals with higher education levels. According to a 2015 Pew Research report, American job seekers with lower educational attainment would benefit the most from using digital tools to support their employment endeavors. To understand opportunities…
• The systemic effects of SNAP benefit cuts on Washtenaw County poverty alleviation institutions The project: This case study of Washtenaw County examines the impact of the 2017 changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Michigan’s new work requirement and time limit for receiving SNAP benefits rolled out in January 2017 meant 3,346 people in Washtenaw County could potentially lose their food assistance. Washtenaw County has one…
• Does the Earned Income Tax Credit Reduce Housing Instability? The project: Stable housing is very important as it relates to economic, physical, and emotional well-being. However, as housing affordability has declined in the past 15 years, housing has become more unstable, which impacts the housing and living arrangements of low-income families. Housing vouchers help improve housing outcomes, but only 24% of 19 million eligible…
• Transportation Insecurity: Developing a Measure to Capture an Understudied Dimension of Poverty The project: A lack of reliable transportation can exacerbate symptoms of poverty and in some cases even cause poverty by making it difficult to secure employment or access services. Yet transportation is often overlooked as a dimension of poverty. Currently, mobility is measured by single factors like car ownership or neighborhood accessibility. Creating a new…