Research update

New paper: Distributive politics and congressional voting: public lands reform in the Jacksonian era

by Bedrosian Center

New paper published: “Distributive politics and congressional voting: public lands reform in the Jacksonian era” by Sean Gailmard, Jeffery A. Jenkins

During the 1830s, Congress passed a series of laws reforming U.S. policy on acquiring public lands. These laws established a federal land policy of preemption, under which squatters on public land obtained legal title to it in exchange for payment of a minimum (and low) price per acre. Preemption significantly liberalized the terms of land ownership in the U.S. We analyze roll call voting on the preemption acts in Congress from a distributive politics perspective …

New Paper: Benefits-sharing agreements and nonideal theory: The warning signs of agreement co-optation

by Bedrosian Center

“Benefits-sharing agreements and nonideal theory: The warning signs of agreement co-optation”
Jovanna Rosen, Lisa Schweitzer

Community members seek benefits-sharing planning agreements to advance their own distributive justice goals by directing benefits to communities. Nonideal theory does much to explain the context and possibilities for these agreements. The agreements forged between communities and development interests seek to address, but not completely achieve, distributive justice via consensus …

New Paper: The Role of Clinics in Determining Older Recent Immigrants’ Use of Health Services

by Bedrosian Center

New publication from Emma Aguila: “The Role of Clinics in Determining Older Recent Immigrants’ Use of Health Services”

Older adults represent an increasing share of adults legally admitted to the U.S. [1]. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 bars immigrants admitted as lawful permanent residents who have been in the U.S. < 5 years (hereafter referred to as recent immigrants) from receiving federally-funded Medicaid. States have the option of providing Medicaid benefits regardless of duration in the U.S. but few provide comprehensive coverage ...

New paper: Gender Difference and Intra-Household Economic Power in Mortgage Signing Order

by Bedrosian Center

New publication from Richard Green: “Gender Difference and Intra-Household Economic Power in Mortgage Signing Order.”

Gender difference is deeply rooted in our identity and has been widely documented by economists in disparate real-world economic contexts. For example, though women have made substantial labor market gains in both participation and earnings, gender inequality persists …

Location, Location, Location! Mobility and Opportunity in East King County

by Bedrosian Center

Emily Lieb brings us another research update from Seattle from the Access to Opportunity Project:

What’s in a neighborhood? Scholars (and realtors) agree: Where a person lives determines how much access to opportunity she has. Good schools, safe streets, high-quality housing that appreciates in value, accessible jobs and services, clean air and water—all of these things make it possible for people to do the best they can for themselves and their families. Poor schools, high crime rates, bad housing, an unhealthy environment, and relative inaccessibility do the opposite. Each one of these things is an obstacle standing between a family and its potential.

How do we know what works?

by Bedrosian Center

Lisa K. Bates, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Urban Studies in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University, updates us on research in the Access to Opportunity Project.

When thinking about assessing the impact of Humboldt Gardens’ GOALS program, which is the project‘s version of HUD‘s Family Self-Sufficiency Program (FSS), it is useful to know the program‘s context. The concept of FSS is straightforward — parents participate in programming designed to promote employment and financial stability, working with a case manager to set goals.

Changing Lives in a Changing Neighborhood

by Bedrosian Center

By Dr. Lisa K. Bates

Joining the Access to Opportunity team is bringing me into dialogue with amazing scholars and practitioners with deep understanding of policy systems, focusing on an under-studied context of west coast cities. I am looking forward to sharing the research from Portland as we complete this initial round of work. We are looking at Humboldt Gardens, a development of Home Forward (the Housing Authority of Portland), as a site for understanding low-income parents’ (mostly parents of color) strategies for accessing ‘opportunity’.

What does self-sufficiency mean in the face of skyrocketing housing costs?

by Bedrosian Center

Dr. Shawn Flanigan, San Diego State University, shares the next installment of our blog on the Access to Opportunity Project. San Diego is consistently ranked among the least affordable housing markets in the United States, topping that list in 2015! Coming in at number two on the list in 2016. Rather than looking exclusively at housing costs, assessments of housing affordability consider housing costs in relation to how many residents of a community could afford to purchase a home at the median price. In 2015, real estate industry research showed that less than half of households could qualify to buy a median priced home in 93.3 percent of San Diego zip codes. This was the highest ratio of any city in the study.

Small and Medium Multifamily Housing is Overlooked Part of Solution to Housing Affordability Challenges

by Bedrosian Center

While rental housing is often associated with large, high-rise apartments, 54 percent of U.S. rentals are in small and medium multifamily housing (SMMF), properties with between two and 49 units. SMMF is a much more important source of homes than has generally been recognized, especially for low-income households, according to new research from Enterprise Community Partners Inc. (Enterprise) and the The USC Bedrosian Center on Governance, housed at the USC Price School of Public Policy.