Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Gregory Acs on Children

A central goal of U.S. social welfare policy is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential as productive adults. Yet it is increasingly clear that where children live plays a central role in determining their life chances. This paper provides an overview of The Urban Institute's Program on Neighborhoods and Youth Development, which is dedicated to understanding the relationships between neighborhood-level factors and the well-being and development of children and youth and identifying and evaluating place-based, community-wide strategies to help children grow up to reach their full potential as adults.

The Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage for the U.S. population on August 26, 2008. According to the report, median household income increased by 1.3 percent in 2007, while the overall poverty rate dipped slightly and the number and percentage of people without health insurance decreased. While the overall numbers were positive, not everyone shared in the economic gains. The number and percentage of children in poverty increased, and households in the lowest 40 percent of the income distribution had no significant income gains.

One-third of America's families with children are low income, meaning their incomes fall below twice the federal poverty level. Although four in five of these families work, many don't bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living. In this essay, Acs and Turner outline their proposals to enhance low-income families' purchasing power and reduce unusually high housing costs through a package of reforms and policy initiatives that tackle both the income side and expenditure side of family budgets.

The increasing recognition of the importance of marriage for the social and economic well-being of children has led to demonstrations aimed at strengthening and stimulating healthy marriages. The next step is to ensure that factors closely linked with healthy marriages are addressed as well. This paper brings together research findings and policy ideas about the interactions between marriage, employment, and family functioning. It presents a framework and proposes several demonstrations aimed at improving employment and family outcomes for disadvantaged populations. The appendix reviews an extensive body of research on specific linkages between marriage, employment, and family functioning.

This paper assesses the extent to which children living in cohabiting families would benefit if their mothers were to marry. Children whose cohabiting mothers marry have higher math and reading scores than children whose mothers either continue to cohabit or who dissolve their cohabiting relationships; marriage is uncorrelated with behavioral outcomes of these children. Interestingly, much of the difference between the test scores of children whose cohabiting mothers marry and those who do not actually predates the marriage. This suggests that the benefits of marriage for children living with cohabiting couples are smaller than they initially appear.

This paper for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation conceptualizes a framework for a new safety net for low-income working families that is rooted in their most essential needs. It is organized around five key goals:(1) enabling parents to meet their family’s needs while working in lower-wage jobs, (2) helping families weather gaps in parental employment, (3) supporting parents’ job advancement, (4) helping parents combine work and child-rearing, and (5) improving children’s well-being and development. The paper describes these families’ circumstances, discusses gaps in current safety-net programs, and explores possible alternative approaches to meeting families’ most pressing needs.

Encouraging and strengthening marriage continues to move up the U.S. social policy agenda. This analysis uses nationally representative data on cohabiting couples with children from the 2002 round of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) to assess marriage penalties or bonuses facing these couples. It examines the consequences of current (2003) federal tax laws, and the incentives that will be in place in 2008 as the final marriage-related provisions of 2001's tax reform are phased in.

Data from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families show that over 70 percent of the difference in poverty, low-income status, and food insecurity between children living with married and cohabiting couples can be attributed to differences in work status, education, age, and race/ethnicity of these couples. The remaining difference can be attributed to unmeasured family characteristics and the intrinsic benefits of marriage.

Using data from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families, the authors find that the majority of the gaps in poverty, low-income status, and food insecurity between children living in cohabiting and married couple families is accounted for by differences in characteristics such as parental education, age, and the number of hours worked. The benefits of marriage and unmeasurable characteristics, such as attitudes towards commitment, account for the rest of the difference. The authors conclude that successful marriage promotion efforts aimed at cohabiting parents could improve the outcomes for their children, but only to a limited extent.

The share of children five and under living with single mothers declined from 21.0 percent in 1997 to 17.3 percent in 2002. The share of young children living with married parents increased by 2.5 percentage points between 1997 and 2002. The share living with unmarried parents increased by 1.2 percentage points.