Upjohn Research
Not a member yet
3819 research outputs found
Sort by
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on KPS Student Enrollment and NWEA Test Scores
Get PDFThis report focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Kalamazoo Public Schools District in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which closed its doors to students from mid-March 2020 to June 2021. During this time, instruction transitioned from face-to-face to virtual, with students having three options for virtual instruction. In addition to individual KPS student data, the study looks at the NWEA national sample as presented in several publications and technical appendices. The study addresses three basic questions, as well as examining students’ race/ethnicity and poverty status, summer learning loss to determine the change in achievement gains, and attendance rates as an example of students not receiving face-to-face instruction. The first question asks whether the pandemic, which began in March of 2020, adversely affected student enrollment. The second question examines how achievement gains based on the NWEA math tests during the 2020–2021 pandemic school year compared to prepandemic and post-school-closure trends. The third question examines the variability of NWEA math test scores during the pandemic compared to the school years before and after the 2020–2021 pandemic school year. We find that student enrollment declined during and after the pandemic school year for at least two years, which is more than appears to be the case in all but the first few years of the century. In addressing the second question, we found that achievement gains rebounded after KPS schools opened, although achievement gains are not as high as in the prepandemic school year. It also appears that the lower grades were more resilient than the upper grades during this period. Regarding the third question, we found that test scores were more variable at the low end of the distribution than at the high end and that variability increased in the year following school closure
Transforming Unemployment Insurance for the Twenty-First Century: A Comprehensive Guide to Reform
Get PDFThis book proposes options and recommendations for comprehensive reform of the unemployment insurance program that was initiated as a social insurance program by the Social Security Act of 1935. It documents the development of the program and its decline since the 1970s. Reform proposals and recommendations are synthesized from reforms suggested by policy analysts and researchers over many decades.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1291/thumbnail.jp
The Recompete Pilot Program Can Help Rebuild Distressed Places—If Policymakers Properly Fund It
No full textSouthwest Michigan Wage and Benefits Survey: Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, and Branch Counties
Get PDFThe Long-Run and Intergenerational Effects of Helping Families Migrate Out of Rural and Distressed America
No full textIt is well documented that, on average, families living in rural and economically distressed areas are worse off. Rural and distressed areas (as defined by Bartik, 2020) have seen years of decreased labor force participation (David et al., 2013) and declining health (Case and Deaton, 2015; Snyder, 2016). Rural mothers have lower earnings (Bastian, 2021) and higher levels of poverty (Snyder and McLaughlin, 2004) than urban and suburban mothers. Bastian and Black (2023) use public ACS data to show that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps families move out of rural and distressed areas. This paper uses linked administrative tax data to look at the long-run and intergenerational effects of EITC-led migration out of rural and distressed areas. I characterize these moves by comparing the Census-Tract-level traits of where these families moved to and from. I examine whether EITC-led migration affects residential segregation by race, immigration, and poverty status. I also examine how effects vary by household traits and whether the intergenerational effects vary by children’s age at migration, as found by Chetty et al. (2016). This project will help policymakers understand whether additional support—perhaps support targeted to people living in certain types of areas—would lead to even more migration to economic opportunity
The Labor Market Effects of Hedge Fund Activism
No full textWe are seeking funding to explore how hedge fund activism affects wage and employment outcomes of workers and inequality in the U.S. Hedge fund activism emerged as a major force of corporate governance in the 2000s. It refers to the practice of hedge funds, which are investment funds that use high-risk strategies, influencing the management and strategic decisions of the companies in which they hold significant stakes. By the mid-2000s, there were between 150 and 200 activist hedge funds in action each year, advocating for changes in 200–300 publicly listed companies in the U.S. There are over 2,000 activism events in the U.S. between 1994 and 2011. Hedge fund activism can lead to increased shareholder value and improved corporate governance by pushing for changes such as cost-cutting measures, management shakeups, and strategic shifts that can boost a company\u27s performance. However, it can also have negative effects, such as short-term focus on financial performance over long-term sustainability and neglecting other stakeholders\u27 interests
