scholarly journals Child Poverty, the Great Recession, and the Social Safety Net in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Bitler ◽  
Hilary Hoynes ◽  
Elira Kuka
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals The Great Recession and Mental Health in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 900-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam K. Forbes ◽  
Robert F. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Panic Attacks ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Impact

The full scope of the impact of the Great Recession on individuals’ mental health has not been quantified to date. In this study we aimed to determine whether financial, job-related, and housing impacts experienced by individuals during the recession predicted changes in the occurrence of symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, and problematic alcohol use or other substance use. Longitudinal survey data ( n = 2,530 to n = 3,293) from the national Midlife in the United States study that were collected before (2003–2004) and after (2012–2013) the Great Recession were analyzed. The population-level trend was toward improvements in mental health over time. However, for individuals, each recession impact experienced was associated with long-lasting and transdiagnostic declines in mental health. These relationships were stronger for some sociodemographic groups, which suggests the need for additional support for people who suffer marked losses during recessions and for those without a strong safety net.

scholarly journals The Great Recession and the Social Safety Net

2013 ◽  
Vol 650 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Moffitt
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Per Capita

The social safety net responded in significant and favorable ways during the Great Recession. Aggregate per capita expenditures in safety net programs grew significantly, with particularly strong growth in the SNAP, EITC, UI, and Medicaid programs. The increase in transfers was widely shared across demographic groups, including families with and without children, and single-parent and two-parent families. Transfers grew as well among families with more employed members and with fewer employed members. In the low-income population, however, the increase in transfer amounts was not strongly progressive across income classes, with transfers to those just below or above the poverty line increasing slightly, compared to those at the bottom of the income distribution. This was mainly because of the EITC program, which provides greater benefits to those with higher family earnings. The expansions of SNAP and UI benefitted those at the bottom of the income distribution to a greater extent.

scholarly journals Heterogeneity in the Impact of Economic Cycles and the Great Recession: Effects within and across the Income Distribution

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 154-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Bitler ◽  
Hilary Hoynes
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Family Type ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Economic Cycles ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, we examine the effects of economic cycles on low-to moderate-income families. We use variation across states and over time to estimate the effects of cycles on the distribution of income, using fine gradations of the household income-to-poverty ratio. We also explore how the effects of cycles affect the risk of falling into poverty across demographic groups, focusing on age, race/ethnicity, and family type. We conclude by testing to see whether these relationships have changed in the Great Recession. We discuss the results in light of the changes in the social safety net in recent decades.

The U.S. Welfare State Is Minimal

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-105
Author(s):  
Mark Robert Rank ◽  
Lawrence M. Eppard ◽  
Heather E. Bullock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Social ◽  
Welfare Expenditures ◽  
The U.S

Chapter 13 examines the size of the social safety net in the United States. Compared with European and other OECD countries, the United States has a fairly small safety net. The amount spent is approximately 2 percent of our GDP. In particular, programs aimed at protecting children from poverty are minimal. These programs have also been reduced over time, especially since the 1996 welfare reform changes. Challenging the myth of the bloated welfare state requires tackling multiple intersecting misperceptions, including erroneous portrayals of U.S. welfare expenditures as exorbitant and low-income programs as driving up the national debt. It will also require shattering myths that legitimize keeping welfare benefits low.

Poverty and the Social Safety Net

2020 ◽  
pp. 520-534
Author(s):  
Manos Matsaganis
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Third ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
The Social

This chapter examines how the social safety net (the welfare state’s anti-poverty armour) evolved since the mid-1970s, and how it responded to, and was transformed by, the social emergency of the 2010s. Its structure is as follows. The first section discusses the state of Greek welfare before the financial crisis broke out. The second section considers the social implications of the Great Recession, focusing on the effects on family incomes of job losses, falling earnings, and higher taxes. The third section provides an account of policy responses under austerity, and the fourth section reviews the evidence on changes in poverty and social exclusion. The chapter concludes that the Greek welfare state, even though no longer chronically underfunded, was structurally unfit to cope with any serious economic downturn, let alone the deep and protracted crisis that hit the country in 2010. Moreover, the system of social protection emerging from the recession and the austerity differ significantly from the situation that preceded it: it is certainly leaner, considerably less robust in core policy areas such as pensions and health, but also probably more effective in protecting vulnerable individuals and households against poverty than at any time in the country’s history.

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