Challenging Inequality through Federal, State, and Local Policy Partnerships

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Widening inequality has been among the most pressing social issues in the U.S. for decades, capturing the attention of social scientists, the public, and policymakers. The share of income going to top income households has increased since the 1970s, while the middle class has seen their share decline. The poverty rate has improved little over this period while both wealth disparities and household indebtedness have grown. Material and financial hardships including homelessness and a reliance on risky and high-cost unsecured credit instruments are growing problems in many U.S. communities. Economic inequality reinforces political inequality and political polarization as the most vulnerable often lack opportunities and resources to participate as fully as their advantaged peers and thus their interests tend to be less represented in policymaking.

To challenge or exacerbate inequality, governments around the world have relied on diverse partnerships with various stakeholders. These "policy partnerships" have emerged across several dimensions, including levels of government (i.e., federal-state-local), sectors (i.e., public-private), and branches of government (i.e., legislative-executive-judicial). Policy partnerships have the potential to create more transformative and resilient policy changes to address inequality by distributing the burden of administration, financing, rulemaking, and enforcement across stakeholders and governmental units. By bringing different parties together, such partnerships can facilitate more collaboration--addressing this year's APPAM conference theme--between policymakers, researchers, and the public, potentially leading to more dynamic and efficient policy.

This panel brings together four timely papers on the role of federal, state, and local policy partnerships for shaping inequalities in income, credit/debt, housing, and civil liberties. The papers cover a range of interventions, inequality outcomes, and institutional settings, including how the administration of U.S. federal safety net policies through state governments shapes black-white inequalities in poverty reduction (van der Naald, Bruch, and Gornick), the effects of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend on income disparities in high-cost unsecured credit use (Dwyer et al.), the effects of a Supreme Court decision to restrict the enforcement of city anti-camping ordinances on homelessness in Western U.S. cities (Brady, Schachner, and Gannon), and how needs-based federal spending promotes equality in the respect for civil liberties across 160 countries (Ha).

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Social Equity and Race

Chair

• Kassandra Martinchek, George Washington University

Discussants

• Adrienne DiTommaso, U.S. Census Bureau

• Marianne Bitler, University of California, Davis

Organizer

• Alec P. Rhodes, Purdue University

Individual Presentations

• Fiscal Policy for Inclusion: How Need-Based Federal Allocations Promote Social, Gender, and Geographic Equality - Presenting Author: Heonuk Ha, University of Michigan

• The U.S. Tax and Transfer System and Black-White Inequality in Poverty Reduction: Decentralized Policy, Racialized Disparities - Presenting Author: Joseph Reynolds van der Naald, CUNY Graduate Center; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Sarah Bruch, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Janet Carol Gornick

• Unconditional Cash Transfers and High-Cost Credit Use: Evidence from the Alaska Permanent Fund - Presenting Author: Alec P. Rhodes, Purdue University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Lawrence M. Berger, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Rachel Dwyer, The Ohio State University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jason N Houle, Dartmouth College

• The Effect of Boise vs. Martin on Homelessness in the U.S. - Presenting Author: David Brady, University of Southern California; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jared Nathan Schachner, University of Southern California; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Matthew Gannon, Johns Hopkins University