Poverty in Upstate Metropolitan Areas: Myths and Realities We live in an era in which long-held attitudes about race have been heightened by political campaigns that attempt to mobilize fears among white voters about minority group members and immigrants. These appeals have ranged from claims that President Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya and claims that criminal undocumented immigrants endanger […]
Countering the Economic Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic We have seen alarming estimates of the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on disease and death, as well as on our economy. Some have suggested that more than half of our population could be infected – more than 160 million people and that one or two percent of those could die. The President’s Treasury […]
The (Sometimes Un-)Affordable Care Act Consider four families of four with two children living near Albany, New York. The breadwinners in the family had recently taken jobs that do not offer health insurance. As the Affordable Care Act was written, they were required to purchase health insurance. Families one and two earn nearly the same incomes. Family one has a […]
Education, Economic Status and Student Performance in New York School Districts Note: A more recent, closer look at this subject may be found here: https://policybynumbers.com/a-closer-look-at-student-performance-in-upstate-city-schools In 1966, James S. Coleman and associates wrote the report, “Equality of Educational Opportunity,” for the United States Department of Health Education and Welfare, as required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The report was commissioned to examine the causes […]
Rochester’s Broken School System Kent Gardner argues forcefully in the Rochester Beacon that Rochester’s school system is broken and in need of radical change. Gardner’s post highlights the efforts of a local organization, ROC the Future, to bring about reform of the city’s school system. Gardner is correct – students in the city’s schools do poorly compared to others […]
Left Behind: Characteristics of Low Labor Participation Counties In my last post, I examined labor market participation in New York State counties. I found that most New Yorkers, both upstate and downstate, live in counties where labor market participation differs only slightly from national levels, but upstate counties with small populations in many cases have labor participation rates that are significantly below the […]
The Income Gap between Men and Women: 2015 vs. 1970 Since 1970, inflation adjusted wage income growth has been almost nonexistent – only five percent over the 45 year period ending in 2015. Income change in metropolitan areas in New York State has differed little from the nation. Rochester and Buffalo were two exceptions – both had lower median real wage incomes in 2015 than in […]
The Persistent Gap Between White and Black Incomes in New York There has long been a substantial gap between the incomes of white Americans and those who describe themselves as African/American or black. As early as 1964, with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, the Federal and state Governments began passing laws aimed at preventing discrimination in the workplace. Has New York seen significant progress in reducing wage […]
Education, Age and Declines in Real Income Since 1970 The economic malaise that has affected small and medium sized rust belt cities since 2000 has been widely noted. Most have seen little or no real household income growth since then. Much of the weak performance has been associated with the long-term decline of manufacturing employment in the region – a trend that is largely […]
Response to Lost Manufacturing Jobs – The Effects of Imports and Increased Productivity I’d like to thank Kay Wilkie, who serves on the United States Trade Representative’s Intergovernmental Policy Advisory Committee for offering useful comments concerning my post, “Lost Manufacturing Jobs – The Effects of Imports and Increased Productivity” Kay points out that “It would be worthwhile to carefully examine and review the aspects of international trade and investment […]
