ECON 2456 Economics of Poverty Reading List
Updated: 2010-12-09

Nota Bene: I reserve the right to make reasonable changes to the schedule as necessary, so please check back periodically.

I will strongly emphasize the required readings below. You are responsible for completing all of these, even if we don't discuss them in class. However, the starred optional sections in Wolff are not required unless otherwise noted.

The remainder of the readings will add depth to your understanding of the material, and you should strive to complete at least a few of them. To access restricted journal articles from off-campus, use the UConn library remote access system.

Review & Introduction

• Kimenyi 1 (Review of Microeconomics)
• Kimenyi 2 (Normative & Positive Analysis)
• Friedman, Chapter 15 (Economic Efficiency)
• Wolff 1 (Introduction)
• Easterlin, Richard A. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?" Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 27, no. 1 (June 1995): 35-47.
• Kimenyi 3 (Poverty Policy: Historical Perspective)
• Videos: Hans Rosling's TED presentations
• Web Site: Gapminder
• Web Site: Measuring Worth

Inequality, Poverty, & Mobility: Measurement & Trends

• Reference: OECD Factbook 2010. OECD, 2010.
• Reference: DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D. Proctor, & Jessica C. Smith. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008. Current Population Reports. Washington DC: US Census Bureau, September 2009..
• Reference: Inequality.org: By the Numbers
• Kimenyi 2 (Appendix: Statistical Analysis of Economic Data)
• Wolff 2 (Income, Earnings, & the Standard of Living)
• Problem Set #1 (Due: 2010-09-14):
  • Wolff: Chapter 2: #2, 4, 7
  • Summarize (in a few sentences) Richard Easterlin's answer to the question in his paper above (Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?).
• Wolff 3 (Income Inequality: Measurement, Historical Trends, & International Comparisons)
• Wolff 4 (Poverty: Definitions & Historical Trends)
• Handout: Measuring Poverty
• Michael Harrington. The Other America: Poverty in the United States. Macmillan, 1964.
• Michael Harrington. The New American Poverty. Henry Holt & Co, 1984.
• "Report: Nearly 1 in 7 Americans Were Poor in '09." Morning Edition, September 16, 2010.
• Stephen Gandel. "Why Are a Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty?" The Curious Capitalist. September 16, 2010.
• "Recession Rips At US Marriages, Expands Income Gap." Associated Press, September 28, 2010.
• Martin Ravallion. "Poverty lines across the world". The World Bank, April 2010.
• Reference: 2009 HHS Poverty Guidelines
• Music: Stephen Foster. "Hard times, come again no more," 1854. Performed by the Edison Male Quartette (Edison Gold Moulded 9120, 1905).
• Problem Set #2 (Due: 2010-09-28):
  • Wolff: Chapter 3: #6, 8; Chapter 4: #3
• Wolff 5 (Household Wealth)
• Blomquist, N. S. "A Comparison of Distributions of Annual and Lifetime Income: Sweden Around 1970." Review of Income and Wealth 27, no. 3 (1981): 243-264. (HuskyCT)
• Problem Set #3 (Due: 2010-10-12):
  • Wolff: Chapter 4: #8, 11; Chapter 5: #2
• Problem Set #4 (Due: 2010-10-19)
• Wolff 6 (Economic Mobility)
• Peter M. Blau & Otis Dudley Duncan. American Occupational Structure. John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1967.
• "Americans Underestimate U.S. Wealth Inequality." Morning Edition, October 7, 2010.
• Podcast: "Talk of the Nation: Climbing The Economic Ladder Getting Harder." October 13, 2010.
• Jaclyn Giovis. "What Is Rich?: The Great American Income Gap." Marketplace Money, October 22, 2010.
• Podcast: Tess Vigeland. Marketplace Money, October 22, 2010.
• David Brancaccio. "Income inequality pushes U.S. down in well-being ranking." Marketplace, November 4, 2010.
• Web Site: The Forbes 400: The Richest People in America
• Documentary: The Up Series
• Problem Set #5 (Due: 2010-10-28):
  • Wolff: Chapter 5: #7
  • Pick a statistic presented in our text in Chapters 1-6 that you consider an important indicator of poverty, inequality, and/or mobility in the US. Find the most current value for this statistic (probably 2009). What has been the trend in this statistic over time, and what does it mean? What may have caused it? Are there any ways in which this statistic doesn't fully capture what you would like it to measure?
• Bonus Assignment #1 (8 points) (Due: 2010-11-02):
  • Attend the Issues of Poverty Conference at ECSU (agenda). In a two-page report, summarize what you learned and evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative discussed in your breakout session in light of what we've learned so far in class.
• Bonus Assignment #2 (8 points) (Due: 2010-11-02):
  • Pick two statistics related to poverty, inequality, and/or mobility in the US or the world at large (and to each other). Find the most recent values for these statistics, as well as their historical values, and present them in both a table and a graph or chart. (Be sure to footnote your sources.) Include a title and a brief caption that suggests the significance of the data you're presenting. Submit your work as a PDF, PNG, or JPEG file so it can be shared with the class.
  • Example student work here
• Problem Set #6 (Due: 2010-11-04):
  • Write a 1-2 page essay reflecting on 49 Up. (See class handout for additional information.)

Midterm Exam: 2010-11-09

• Bonus Assignment #3 (8 points) (Due: 2010-11-30):
  • Write a short (1 page, single-spaced) essay answering question #7 from the midterm. Include (and cite!) specific facts to support your argument.

Explanations of Inequality & Poverty

Background

• Timothy Noah. "The Great Divergence." Slate Magazine, September 3, 2010.
• Timothy Noah. "Theoretical Egalitarians: Why income distribution can't be crowd-sourced." Slate Magazine, September 27, 2010.
• Commentary: "Reich: America will swing back." Marketplace, September 27, 2010.
• Podcast: "Where We Live: Why the Rich Keep Getting Richer." October 6, 2010.
• Video: Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war
• Video: Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money—and love
• Video: Hans Rosling: The good news of the decade?

Human Capital

• Wolff 8 (Role of Education & Skills) (including sec. 8.2.3.4)
• Dalton Conley. "Capital for College: Parental Assets and Postsecondary Schooling." Sociology of Education 74, no. 1 (January 2001): 59-72.
• Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life (Basic Books, 1977).
• Richard Herrnstein & Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (Free Press, 1994).
• James J. Heckman, "Lessons from the Bell Curve." The Journal of Political Economy 103, no. 5 (October 1995): 1091-1120.
• Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, & Robert Szarka, "Escalating Differences and Elusive `Skills': Cognitive Abilities and the Explanation of Inequality," in Race, Poverty, Inequality and Domestic Policy, ed. Michael Henry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).
• James J. Heckman & Yona Rubinstein, "The Importance of Noncognitive Skills: Lessons from the GED Testing Program." The American Economic Review 91, no. 2 (May 2001): 145-149.
• Problem Set #7 (Due: 2010-12-02):
  • Wolff: Chapter 8: #3, 4, 6, & 7
  • N.B.: Your answers should not be a simple quote of Wolff's text. Explain in your own words, use graphs, etc.

The Role of Identity

• George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton. "Economics and Identity." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 115, no. 3 (2000): 715-753.
• George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton. "Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education." Journal of Economic Literature 40, no. 4 (December 2002): 1167-1201.

Discrimination

• Wolff 12 (Discrimination: Meaning, Measurement, & Theory) (except 12.7)
• Wolff 13 (Racial Discrimination: Progress & Reversal for Black Americans)
• Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt. "The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, no. 3 (2004): 767-805. (Business Week summary by Robert J. Barro)
• Dalton Conley. "Getting into the Black: Race, Wealth, and Public Policy." Political Science Quarterly 114, no. 4 (Winter, 1999-2000): 595-612.
• Simulation: Schelling's Segregation Model
• Wolff 14 (The Gender-Wage Gap & Occupational Segregation) (except 14.3.2.1)
• Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn. "Wage Structure and Gender Earnings Differentials: An International Comparison." Economica 63, no. 250. New Series (1996): S29-S62.
• John Dankosky. "Gender Wage Gap & Paycheck Fairness Act." Where We Live, November 22, 2010.
• Video: Sheryl WuDunn: Our century's greatest injustice

Public Policy

• Wolff 15 (Public Policy & Poverty Alleviation) (except 15.6)
• Wolff 16 (Redistributional Effects of Public Policy) (except 16.3.2 & 16.3.3)
• Problem Set #8 (Due: 2010-12-09):
  • Wolff: Chapter 13: #3
  • Wolff: Chapter 14: #2
  • Wolff: Chapter 15: #2, 6
  • Wolff: Chapter 16: #3
  • N.B.: Your answers should not be a simple quote of Wolff's text. Explain in your own words, use graphs, etc.
• Samuel Bowles & Arjun Jayadev. "Garrison America." The Economists' Voice, March 2007.
• Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat, Jonathan Gruber, Phillip B. Levine, & Douglas Staiger. "Abortion and Selection." National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, April 2006.
• Jonathan Gruber & Daniel M. Hungerman. "Faith-based charity and crowd-out during the great depression." Journal of Public Economics 91, no. 5 (June 2007): 1043-1069.
• Tom Ashbrook. "Glenn Hubbard & Alice Rivlin on Economic Solutions." On Point, November 18, 2010.
• Television: Joshua Miller. "Billionaires Giving Back." ABC This Week, November 28, 2010.
• Video: Melinda French Gates: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola
• Video: Mechai Viravaidya: How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place

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