 |
|
SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 |
|
Harvard Kennedy School | | | |
|
 |
|
Dr. Priya Sarin Gupta, medical director with Mass General Brigham, checks the blood pressure of a patient outside a Community Care Van in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images | | |
|
|
Cities & Communities |
|
Cash benefits changed the way a low-income community used the health system |
|
|
Recipients of cash benefits were healthier and less likely to visit the emergency department for mental health or substance abuse issues, according to a groundbreaking new study by Harvard researchers, including Professor Jeffrey Liebman, director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at HKS. The recipients of the monthly cash benefit, drawn by lottery in the low-income community of Chelsea, Massachusetts, were also more likely to see medical subspecialists. Importantly, while previous analyses of cash benefits warned against recipients’ increased use of drugs and alcohol, the new study found cash benefits led to 87% fewer emergency department visits related to substance use. The study is one of the largest randomized controlled trials of a guaranteed income program in the country.
Learn more about Cities & Communities at HKS » | | |
|
Fairness & justice |
|
The case for equity |
|
|
With diversity, equity, and belonging efforts at universities and other institutions under scrutiny, Harvard Kennedy School experts explain why we need to care, and how research that addresses questions of equity can benefit not just a few people, but everyone. In the latest issue of HKS Magazine, faculty members speak about evidence for equity. As Associate Professor of Public Policy Mark Shepard explains, “Our goal is to demonstrate that the pursuit of excellence and equity are intertwined, that these values are not in tension but in fact reinforce one another, and that by centering excellence in equity, we can create a more just, fair, and prosperous world.”
Learn more about Fairness & Justice at HKS » | | |
|
Social Policy |
|
Are “bad jobs” dead ends or steppingstones to better things? |
|
|
Nearly one in five workers in the United States are employed in the low-wage retail and food service sector, which has the largest concentration of low-wage workers and is characterized by poor benefits and unpredictable schedules. New research by the Shift Project, based at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at HKS and co-directed by Professor Daniel Schneider, followed thousands of service sector workers over a period of several years spanning the COVID-19 pandemic. The research found that workers do best when they change jobs, and especially when they change sectors; but that wage growth, especially during a tight labor market, can be highest when workers stay in the same position. But it also came to a sobering conclusion: Of the thousands of workers they followed, 92% of those who began in a bad job remained in a bad job 18 months later.
Learn more about Social Policy at HKS » | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
