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9 Recommendations for Research and Data Collection
Pages 257-274

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From page 257...
... evaluate the anti-poverty effectiveness of major assistance programs in the United States and other industrialized countries; (3) identify policies and programs with the potential to further reduce poverty and deep poverty for children by 50 percent within 10 years; and (4)
From page 258...
... To provide just a few examples: • In contrast to the wealth of evidence available during the welfare reform debates of the 1990s, today we have very few recent strong evaluations of programs and policies designed to boost the job skills and employment of parents in low-income families receiving public assistance. • For some assistance programs, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
From page 259...
... In addition, there are two areas for which we do not make formal recommendations, but which nonetheless deserve attention. First, among the major assistance programs, SSI and various kinds of housing assistance have undergone little evaluation to determine their effectiveness in reducing child poverty and improving child well-being.
From page 260...
... We stress the importance of randomized controlled methodologies, where feasible, when evaluating the effectiveness of existing or proposed programs and policies for reducing child poverty and deep poverty. These methodologies can also provide evidence to help achieve other program goals that can improve child well-being, such as increasing marriage rates and parents' labor force participation.
From page 261...
... If government is to reach appropriate conclusions about which policies will have the largest effects on poverty reduction and labor force participation, it needs a solid and reliable body of research evidence. Much of what is known about the effects of work-oriented features of assistance programs on poverty, government budgets, and society at large (see Chapter 7)
From page 262...
... We recommend rigorous evaluation of those features of assistance programs that might make it easier for families to obtain and retain benefits. Examples include methods for integrating and streamlining enrollment across multiple program areas (e.g., housing, food, energy)
From page 263...
... RECOMMENDATION 9-2: Relevant federal departments and agen cies should prioritize research and experimentation aimed at finding ways to reduce the financial instability of low-income families partic ipating in assistance programs. Program features that may contribute to this goal and merit evaluation include streamlined program adminis tration, more convenient access to the benefits that families are eligible to receive, provisions for emergency assistance, and flexibility in the frequency of benefit payments.
From page 264...
... Compounding the obstacles to economic betterment that confront minority low-income families is the fact that they are more likely than White families to live in areas of concentrated poverty and to have a parent involved in the criminal justice system. Income assistance programs, which are the focus of our report, cannot in isolation be expected to significantly reduce neighborhood segregation, discrimination in realms such as employment, or mass incarceration.
From page 265...
... Collecting Relevant Variables to Analyze Program Effectiveness and Child Poverty The portfolio of ongoing federal household surveys provides a rich array of data for tracking child poverty and other indicators of child well-being. However, some important variables are systematically missing from both surveys and program administrative records.
From page 266...
... More generally, it is important for relevant program agencies and statistical agencies to systematically review the extent to which existing and proposed data collections include important variables for the analysis of low-income families' participation in assistance programs, characteristics of parents that are important for understanding child outcomes, and trends in child poverty and other indicators of child well-being. Based on that review, the next step is for agencies to identify priority data gaps and to develop plans, in conjunction with OMB's Statistical Policy Division and relevant OMB budget units, for filling these gaps.
From page 267...
... Methods to consider include adding supplemental samples to existing surveys on a rotating basis, fielding targeted surveys periodically, and ensuring that assistance pro gram records include relevant variables for analysis. Improving Measures of Income and Poverty Estimates of income, poverty, and assistance program participation that are derived from major federal household surveys, including the CPS ASEC, the American Community Survey, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
From page 268...
... In Chapter 2 we described the TRIM3 model procedures for correcting the underreporting of receipt and amounts of major assistance programs, specifically SNAP, SSI, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) , in the CPS ASEC; without such adjustments, the SPM poverty rate for children in 2015 would have been 3.3 percentage points higher.
From page 269...
... It would also be useful for the Census Bureau to conduct or commission research on the OPM, anchored SPM, unanchored SPM, and c ­onsumption-based measures of poverty to see which of these measures more accurately track other measurements of disadvantage and hardship, such as food insecurity, both over time and across space. RECOMMENDATION 9-7: Relevant federal departments and agen cies, together with the Office of Management and Budget, should work with the Census Bureau to obtain and use administrative records in conjunction with household surveys to improve the quality of the official income, poverty, and program participation estimates that are needed by the public, policy makers, program analysts, and researchers.
From page 270...
... should be able to identify promising program features to implement at scale. It is important that program budgets, whether for new or current programs, include sufficient resources for data collection to enable continuous monitoring of program operations and child outcomes.
From page 271...
... Several of these recommendations by the Commission are adopted in the administration's June 19, 2018, report, Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century -- Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations, which includes a section on strengthening federal evaluation.6 They are also included in the recently passed Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018.7 RECOMMENDATION 9-9: Federal and state executive agencies and legislatures should ensure that child anti-poverty assistance programs require and include adequate resources for regular monitoring of pro gram operations and child outcomes, as well as for rigorous program evaluation and research on ways to improve program effectiveness. COORDINATING RESEARCH AND DATA PRIORITIES ACROSS DEPARTMENTS Our report lays out packages of anti-poverty programs that have the potential to cut child poverty and deep poverty by one-half within 10 years.
From page 272...
... Responsibilities for data collection, program evaluation, and research on program improvements are similarly dispersed. State agencies, working with their federal counterparts, play an important role in the administration of many assistance programs.
From page 273...
... Census Bureau. Grogger, J., and Karoly, L.A.
From page 274...
... . Guidance for Providing and Using Administrative Data for Statistical Purposes.


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