Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan

Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
Suite 5100
735 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091

Publications

Working Papers and Reports

Our working papers and reports present new research supported by Poverty Solutions, providing an in-depth look at data and findings.

Working papers published by the National Poverty Center previously housed at U-M are linked at the bottom of the page.

Featured working papers and reports

Uncovering Racial Disparities in Washtenaw County’s Legal System

In Washtenaw County, there is evidence that people of color have different encounters with the legal system than white people.

Detroit’s Lead-Safe Ecosystem

Lead poisoning is a concern in Detroit due to the prevalence of housing built before 1978 that is likely to contain lead-based paint.

Effects of the 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit on Economic Well-Being

This working paper examines the effects of an unconditional cash transfer on material hardship, ability to meet needs, money on hand, use of friends and family for assistance, and employment of families and children with very low incomes.

The Growth of Housing Wealth in Detroit and Its Neighborhoods: 2014 to 2023
February 27, 2025

By Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Kurt Metzger, and Christina Shaw
Economic and Health Impacts of Paid Parental, Caregiving, and Medical Leave: A review of existing literature and evidence
November 8, 2024

By Karen Kling, H. Luke Shaefer, and Betsey Stevenson
Harms Report for the Detroit Reparations Task Force
November 1, 2024

By the Center for Social Solutions, Poverty Solutions, the Rackham Graduate School, and the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being at the University of Michigan, for the Detroit Reparations Task Force
Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness in New York State: Barriers and Facilitators to Identification and Continued Enrollment
October 31, 2024

By Jennifer Erb-Downward, William Lopez, and John Bulat
Unemployment Insurance Reform: Where do we go from here?
August 26, 2024

By Sander Levin, Patrick Cooney, and Poverty Solutions Staff
Record Costs: Collateral Consequences of Eviction Court Filings in Pennsylvania
July 15, 2024

By Alexa Eisenberg and Kate Brantley
The Growth of Housing Wealth in Detroit and its Neighborhoods: 2014-2022
April 16, 2024

By Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Kurt Metzger, and Christina Shaw
Uncovering Racial Disparities in Washtenaw County's Legal System
February 16, 2024

By Lauren Slagter, Trevor Bechtel, and Amanda Nothaft
Estimating the cost of workplace injuries to Michigan’s undocumented immigrants and the state’s economy
February 8, 2024

By Amanda Nothaft
Detroit's Lead-Safe Ecosystem
February 7, 2024

By Leonymae Aumentado
North Central Michigan College Child Care Initiative Phase One Findings: Surveying Emmet County’s Child Care Landscape
June 30, 2023

By Karen Ann Kling, Jennifer Wixson, Laura Tuthill, and William D. Lopez
The Crisis is not Temporary: Evictions After Emergency Rental Assistance in Detroit
June 5, 2023

By Alexa Eisenberg and Kate Brantley
The Effects of Income on the Economic Well-being of Families With Low Incomes: Evidence From the 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit
September 27, 2022

by Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Katherine Michelmore, Nicole Kovski, and H. Luke Shaefer
Establishing Discrete Categories of Transportation Insecurity Using the Transportation Security Index
July 24, 2022

Alexandra K. Murphy, Karina Lopez-MacDonald, Jamie Griffin, and Alix Gould-Werth
Crisis Before the Emergency: Evictions in Detroit Before and After the Onset of COVID-19
June 25, 2022

By Alexa Eisenberg and Katlin Brantley
The COVID-19 Cash Transfer Studies
June 13, 2022

By H. Luke Shaefer, Brian A. Jacob, Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Elizabeth Rhodes, and Katherine Richard
The Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty and Public Assistance – Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit
March 19, 2022

By Nicardo McInnis, Katherine Michelmore, and Natasha Pilkauskas
Continuums of Care Survey 2020: Results and Recommendations
December 22, 2021

By Kasia Klasa, Naquia Unwala, Scott L. Greer, Julia A. Wolfson, and Charley E. Willison
Reducing Michigan Evictions: The Pandemic and Beyond
June 2, 2021

By Elizabeth Benton, Margaret Dewar, Robert Goodspeed, and Robert Gillett
When Scale and Replication Work: Learning from Summer Youth Employment Experiments
April 30, 2021

By Sara Heller
Avoiding Material Hardship: The Buffer Function of Wealth
April 1, 2021

By Richard Rodems and Fabian Pfeffer
Lessons from a Pandemic: The Need for Statutory Reform to Michigan's Unemployment System
March 1, 2021

By Rachael Kohl
The Interlinkage between Blood Plasma Donation and Poverty
February 1, 2021

By Analidis Ochoa, H. Luke Shaefer, and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor
COVID-19's Impact on Ypsilanti's Residents of Color
November 1, 2020

By Patrick Meehan, Marquan Jackson, Alize Asberry Payne, and Trina Shanks
A Decent Home: The Status of Home Repair in Detroit
October 1, 2020

By Ryan Ruggiero, Josh Rivera, and Patrick Cooney
Investing in Us: Resident Priorities for Economic Mobility in Detroit
September 1, 2020

By Poverty Solutions’ Detroit Partnership for Economic Mobility team
The Financial Well-being of Detroit Residents: What do we know?
August 1, 2020

By Afton Branche-Wilson and Patrick Cooney
Employer Resource Networks: A review
August 1, 2020

By H. Luke Shaefer and Joshua Rivera
Understanding Job (Mis)Match: Jobs and Jobseekers in Detroit
August 1, 2020

By Pinghui Wu, Joshua Rivera, and Samiul Jubaed
Tots or Teens: How Does Child’s Age Influence Maternal Labor Supply Response to the Earned Income Tax Credit?
July 1, 2020

By Katherine Michelmore and Natasha V. Pilkauskas
Exclusion and Marginalization in Financial Services: Frontline Employees as Street-Level Bureaucrats
January 1, 2020

By Terri Friedline, SeYoung Oh, Thomas Klemm, and Jase Kugiya
Toward a Comprehensive, Inclusive, and Equitable Subsidized Employment Initiative In Detroit
November 1, 2019

By Chris Warland and Melissa Young
No Place Called Home: Student Homelessness Prevalence and Structural Correlates
October 1, 2019

By Michael Evangelist and H. Luke Shaefer
The Detroit Labor Market: Recent Trends, Current Realities
October 1, 2019

By Harry Holzer and Joshua Rivera
The Eviction Machine: Neighborhood Instability and Blight in Detroit's Neighborhoods
July 1, 2019

By Joshua Akers and Eric Seymour
Hidden Hardship in the United States: Material Well-Being Above the Poverty Line
May 16, 2019

By Richard Rodems

The Inequality Lab
DreamGigs: Designing a Tool to Empower Low-resource Job Seekers
May 2, 2019

By Tawanna R. Dillahunt and Alex Lu

Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Barrier Busters: Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Strategy to Promote Economic Self-Sufficiency
April 1, 2019

By Stephanie S. Moore, Michael Gordon, Elise Gahan, and Julie Gowda
Mobility-on-Demand versus Fixed-Route Transit Systems
February 1, 2019

By Tawanna R. Dillahunt and Xiang ‘Jacob’ Yan
Mobility-on-Demand versus Fixed-Route Transit Systems: An Evaluation of Traveler Preferences in Low-Income Communities
February 1, 2019

By Xiang Yan, Xilei Zhao, Yuan Han, Pascal Van Hentenryck, and Tawanna Dillahunt
The Decline of Cash Assistance and the Well-Being of Households with Children
January 1, 2019

By H. Luke Shaefer, Kathryn Edin, Vincent Fusaro, and Pinghui Wu
Disaster Lending: “Fair” Prices, but “Unfair Access”
December 1, 2018

By Taylor A. Begley, Umit G. Gurun, Amiyatosh Purnanandam, and Daniel Weagley
Preventing Owner-Occupied Property Tax Foreclosures in Detroit: Improving Access to the Poverty Tax Exemption
December 1, 2018

By Alexa Eisenberg, Roshanak Mehdipanah, Ted Phillips, and Michele Oberholtzer
The Impact of Grocery Store Rewards Cards on Saving and Asset Accumulation in Children’s Savings Account Programs
November 1, 2018

By William Elliott, Nicholas Sorensen, Megan O’Brien, Elizabeth Berland, and Briana Starks
Text-Based Mentoring for New Moms: A Feasibility Study
August 1, 2018

By Eleanor Martin, Christina Weiland, and Lindsay C. Page
Comparing Trends in Poverty and Material Hardship Over the Past Two Decades
July 1, 2018

By H. Luke Shaefer and Joshua Rivera
Advancing the Profession and Sustainability of Community Health Workers
March 1, 2018

By Jeremy Lapedis, Edith C. Kieffer, Carrie Rheingans, and Marianne Udow-Phillips
Maternal Employment Stability in Early Childhood: Links with child behavior and cognitive skills
August 1, 2017

By Natasha Pilkauskas, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Jane Waldfogel
Public Preschool in a More Diverse America: Implications for Next-Generation Evaluation Research
August 1, 2017

By Deborah A. Phillips, Anna D. Johnson, Christina Weiland, and Jane E. Hutchison
Color and Credit: Race, Regulation, and the Quality of Financial Services
March 1, 2017

By Taylor A. Begley and Amiyatosh Purnanandam
Hallmarks of Effective Youth Employment Programs from Research and Programs across the United States: Implications for Detroit
March 1, 2017

By Christine Robinson, Trina Shanks, and Patrick Meehan

View National Poverty Center working papers