Research Library

Public finance fellow Jorge Barro examines the Federal Reserve’s aggressive financial market response to the Covid-19 pandemic and asserts that without its use of unconventional policy tools, adverse outcomes could have spread to other areas of the economy, disproportionately impacting low-income households.

In this study, the authors surveyed students in 80 Harris County schools, as well as their parents, to identify external factors that influence academic performance, particularly among students living in poverty. Their findings can be broadly used to better understand the unmet needs of students under current systems of support, and to develop solutions that can give every child an opportunity to succeed.

The Covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for resettled refugees in the U.S. and exposed underlying vulnerabilities that particularly impact refugee women and children, as well as the organizations that work to support them. The authors examine the difficulties facing refugees in the U.S. and offer policy recommendations that may help them.

The authors explore the health barriers and vulnerabilities of undocumented immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic, reveal the gaps in the Covid-19 relief bills and consider the implications for immigrant children.

Parental stress, which is heightened during natural disasters, can produce negative physiological responses in the developing brains of their infants and young children. This irreversibly alters the child’s brain structure, impacting their long-term prospects for good health and academic and economic success. Now is the time to institute policies and practices that mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the next generation, write the authors,

This compilation is based on the “Women’s Grassroots Mobilization in the MENA Region Post-2011” workshops held in Rabat, Morocco and Amman, Jordan in February and March 2020. The following briefs address many facets of women’s mobilization in the second decade of the 2000s. Using detailed case studies of specific countries and movements, the contributing authors — who include scholars and activists from Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Turkey, Palestine, and Jordan — examine which spaces for women’s mobilization have opened and which have closed off.

Understanding how to interpret the signs of a child's distress as they adjust to a new way of life during Covid-19 — and how to respond appropriately — is important for a child's mental health and development.

Given the advantages of an LLC and frequent advice to form one, the authors explore the reasons for the low adoption of the LLC form of business by entrepreneurs and ways to increase its use.

Public health and economic measures enacted to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and mitigate the financial impact on families have unintended consequences for low-income women and their children. The authors explain why.

The authors examine recent trends in vaping, research on its effectiveness for smoking cessation, the role of industry marketing and policy responses to increased use.