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The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is a center for interdisciplinary research into the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality and the impact of related policies and programs. As the National Poverty Research Center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, IRP coordinates the U.S. Collaborative of Poverty Centers in an integrated set of activities with the ultimate goal of improving the effectiveness of public policies to reduce poverty and inequality and their impacts on the well-being of the American people.

IRP Podcasts – 2013

Hosted by David Chancellor.

Listen to our podcast on UW–Madison's iTunes U.

Past episodes: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
UW–Madison's iTunes U

Administrative Burden and Access to Government Programs (December 2013)

Pam Herd and Don Moynihan discuss their work on red tape—or administrative burden—and how it affects the way that people access government social welfare programs. They discuss potential benefits of shifting administrative burden from program participants to the program administrators and how improving program implementation can alter the way that people perceive government and civically engage. For more informatin on this topic see their La Follette School Working Paper No. 2013-013.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

Natural Disasters, the Poor, and the Louisiana Road Home Program (September 2013)

Jesse Gregory, assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Louisiana Road Home Program and its effect on helping low-income homeowners rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. He also talks about the challenges of creating policy that balances the need to help disaster victims recover while not encouraging further building in disaster-locations.

To learn more about Gregory's work on this topic, please see his working paper The Impact of Post-Katrina Rebuilding Grants on the Resettlement Choices of New Orleans Homeowners

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

The Wisconsin Poverty Report and How We Think about Measuring Poverty (July 2013)

Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs, talks about the latest Wisconsin Poverty Report, released in June of 2013. Smeeding says that poverty in Wisconsin increased modestly between 2010 and 2011 and that the state saw a statistically significant increase in child poverty, mostly a result of changes in refundable tax credits. The podcast explains the differences between the Wisconsin Poverty Measure and the official federal poverty measure and looks at how a better understanding of how we define poverty can have an effect on our understanding of who is poor.

For technical details behind the reports, or to see previous years' reports, please see the Wisconsin Poverty Report page on the IRP website.

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Family Change, Father Involvement, and Child Food Insecurity (June 2013)

In this podcast, Daniel Miller of the Boston University School of Social Work discusses his research on measuring child food insecurity in the context of family type, changing family structure, and father involvement. Miller says there's still a lot that we don't know about food insecurity for kids but that understanding the connections between family change and food insecurity has a lot of promise in giving us a better picture of the problem.

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Thinking about Decision Making in the Context of Poverty (May 2013)

In this podcast, Crystal Hall of the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs talks about her work applying insights from behavioral and cognitive psychology to better understand the decision making of people living in the context of poverty. Hall explains how the operating assumptions of programs and services might not do a good job at taking account of the many tradeoffs that people with fewer material resources have to make.

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Evaluating the Post-Katrina New Orleans School System (April 2013)

Douglas Harris, associate professor of economics and University Endowed Chair in Public Education at Tulane University in New Orleans, talks about the development of the charter school system in New Orleans coming out of Hurricane Katrina. He explains some of the likely hypotheses for why New Orleans' schools might be doing better and discusses the challenges of measuring improvement in the city's schools.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

The Employment Prospects of Formerly Incarcerated People and Off-the-Books Work (February 2013)

Bryan Sykes, a sociologist at DePaul University, explains some of the barriers that former inmates encounter when trying to find work and how the costs of incarceration disproportionately affect young African American men. He also talks about his work on off-the-books labor and how former inmates still face heavy discrimination in the informal economy.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

The EITC and Tax Refunds for Low-Income Tax Filers (December 2012)

Damon Jones, an economist at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, talks about how the EITC and other refundable tax credits can combine to create a large once-a-year lump sum payment for low-income tax filers and how that payment structure affects the ways that those funds are used.*

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Multiple-Partner Fertility and Disadvantaged Families (November 2012)

Marcy Carlson, professor of sociology at UW–Madison, talks about parents having kids with more than one partner and how this can be a challenge for families and for policymakers.

For more on this topic, please see Professor Carlson's webcast presentation at the Population Reference Bureau.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

The Balance Sheets of Low-Income People (October 2012)

J. Michael Collins, director of the Center for Financial Security, explains some of the efforts behind getting more low-income people to save money and talks about the challenges in developing good policy and helpful financial products for the underbanked population.

For more on this, check out the following links:

• FDIC Underbanked research
  http://economicinclusion.gov/
• US Government site on money management
  http://www.mymoney.gov/myresources.html
• Industry collaborative to create products for the underserved
  http://cfsinnovation.com/

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Spatial measurement of child poverty in the United States (September 2012)

Katherine Curtis of University of Wisconsin–Madison's Department of Community and Environmental Sociology talks about developing spatial measurements of poverty and how it is critical to consider locally specific factors when trying to understand the drivers of poverty and child poverty.*

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Food security trends and an introduction to the Wisconsin Food Security Project (August 2012)

Judi Bartfeld, director of the IRP-USDA RIDGE Center, professor with the Department of Consumer Science, and specialist with the University of Wisconsin–Extension, discusses the growth in food insecurity following the Great Recession, measurement methods, and the development of the Wisconsin Food Security Project website.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript

Income volatility trends in the United States and their potential impact on the poor (July 2012)

In July's podcast, Bradley Hardy of American University talks about trends in U.S. income volatility and how shifts towards greater volatility can particularly impact low-income people.

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Can behavioral economics contribute to poverty research? (June 2012)

Justin Sydnor, a microeconomist at the Wisconsin School of Business, talks about the growing field of behavioral economics and how it can be applied to research on poverty and the problems facing low-wage workers.*

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Measuring unmet food need in San Francisco and Marin County (May 2012)

In IRP's first podcast, Dave talks with Christopher Wimer of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality about Wimer's work on measuring unmet food need in San Francisco and Marin County, California.*

Listen to the podcast