Poverty, Tax, and Transfer Policies Research Network

Bradley Hardy is an Associate Professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, and nonresident senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. His research interests lie within labor economics, with an emphasis on economic instability, intergenerational mobility, poverty policy, and socio-economic outcomes. His research examines trends and sources of income volatility and intergenerational mobility within the United States, with a focus on socio-economically disadvantaged families, and the role of anti-poverty transfer programs such as SNAP and the EITC.

James Ziliak is the Carol Martin Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics, Founding Director of the Center for Poverty Research, and Founding Executive Director of the Kentucky Federal Statistical Research Data Center at the University of Kentucky. His research interests are in the areas of labor and public economics, with a special emphasis on U.S. tax and transfer programs, poverty measurement and policy, food insecurity, and inequality. Recent projects include trends in earnings and income volatility; the origins of persistently poor regions in America; and the effect of survey nonresponse on the level and trends in poverty and inequality.

Christopher Brown, Head of Regional Government Partnerships at Bird (Bay Area and Pacific NW), has served at the intersection of policy/politics, community affairs, and the business community for over 15 years. He was previously Counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, and Legislative Director for U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (IL-1). He later served as a longstanding Director at PolicyLink, a national public policy institute focused on racial and economic equity across transportation, banking, and the larger economy. He brings a depth of experience in bridging community needs to government policy and business practices, and implements equity-based strategies for business operations and community partnerships.

Jeremie Greer is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Liberation in a Generation. Over the course of his life and career Jeremie Greer has been dedicated to the advancement of racial and economic justice. Growing up in the historically Black Rondo Neighborhood, in St. Paul MN, he has always been attuned to the intersection between race and economics. He began his career in the Columbia Heights and Shaw neighborhoods in Washington, DC, organizing youth and tenants to fight back against the economic forces rapidly gentrifying that community. Working at the national level in the federal government’s premier policy agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and at two national non-profits, the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) and Prosperity Now (formerly CFED), he has become a national policy expert on the causes and the policy solutions to close racial wealth gap. Jeremie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of St. Thomas, a Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University, and is currently working on an Executive Education Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

Sarah Halpern-Meekin is a sociologist whose research focuses on family, adolescence, social policy and the welfare state, class and inequality, and qualitative methods. Her current research includes examining the role of parents’ churning (on-again/off-again) relationships in family life, exploring the experiences and financial decision-making of mothers who are receiving monthly unconditional cash gifts, and understanding how rural men make ends meet, spend their time, and make meaning while disconnected from the formal labor force.

Hilary Hoynes is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy and holds the Haas Distinguished Chair in Economic Disparities at the University of California Berkeley. Hoynes specializes in the study of poverty, inequality, food and nutrition programs, and the impacts of government tax and transfer programs on low income families. Current projects include evaluating the effects of the access to the social safety net in early life on later life health and human capital outcomes, examining the effects of the Great Recession on poverty and the role of the safety net in mitigating income losses, and estimating the impact of Head Start on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

Melissa Kearney is a Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and co-chair of the J-PAL cities and states inititative. Kearney’s research focuses on issues of social policy, poverty, and inequality. Many of her papers examine the effect of government programs and economic conditions on the behaviors and outcomes of economically disadvantaged populations.

Follow on Twitter: @kearney_melissa

Elaine Maag is a senior research associate in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where she studies income support programs for low-income families and children, with an emphasis on tax policy. Maag codirected the creation of the Net Income Change Calculator, a tool that allows users to understand the trade-offs between tax and transfer benefits, and changes in earnings or marital status. She is currently serving as a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance’s Study Panel on Universal Family care. Previously, she worked at the Internal Revenue Service and Government Accountability Office as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Bruce D. Meyer, the McCormick Foundation Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, studies poverty and inequality, tax policy, and government safety net programs such as unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, food stamps, and Medicaid. His most recent work includes research on trends in poverty and inequality, the consequences of disability, the effects of Medicaid, and the accuracy of household surveys. Meyer has also served as an advisor to numerous federal agencies and other prominent public and private organizations.

Robert Moffitt is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests are in the areas of labor economics and applied microeconometrics, with a special focus on the economics of issues relating to the low-income population in the U.S.. A large portion of his research in labor economics has concerned the labor supply decisions of female heads of family and its response to the U.S. welfare system. Moffitt has also published research on other safety net programs, the labor supply and family structure effects of social insurance programs, and the U.S. income tax system.

Aaron Yelowitz is a Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky and the Director of the John H. Schnatter Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise. He is also a joint faculty member in the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Kentucky and an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute. He conducts extensive research in the area of health care, including Medicaid managed care and the Affordable Care Act. Other recent research topics include housing and real estate markets, life insurance, racial disparities, paid sick leave, property taxes, and state-run automatic IRAs.