Poverty and Public Policy

Catalog description

This course provides an introduction to social science research on poverty in the United States and public policies designed to reduce material hardship and economic insecurity. We will investigate different approaches to defining and measuring poverty, competing perspectives on the underlying causes of poverty, how poverty is distributed across social groups and transmitted intergenerationally, and how different explanations about the causes of poverty shape policy solutions. We will also examine major social safety net programs in the U.S. and the lived experiences of program participants.