News
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Ziliak and Bollinger receive NSF grant to examine earnings volatility
July 2019
James Ziliak and Christopher Bollinger, both professors of economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, are the recipients of a new, 3-year, $373,000 National Science Foundation grant that will fund their ongoing research on earnings volatility and inequality. Read more.
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Ziliak gives testimony before KY welfare reform task force
July 2019
UKCPR Director James Ziliak testified July 8 before an interim task force on public assistance reform in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The bipartisan and bicameral task force was established to study the potential effects of new rules for receipt of public assistance, including work requirements, drug testing of applicants, and inclusion of photo IDs for use of EBT cards used in benefits access. Read the full story.
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Emerging Poverty Scholars Fellowship at IRP
June 2019
The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison invites applications from junior scholars from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations for its 2019-2020 Emerging Poverty Scholars Fellowship program. Fellowships are for tenure-track faculty with experience in poverty research. See the full call for applications.
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Heflin publishes new research
June 2019
Colleen Heflin is a professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a UKCPR research affiliate. Her work focuses on welfare policy, poverty, and the well-being of vulnerable populations. Heflin’s article on “Food pantry assistance and the Great Recession” appears in the 2019 (Vol. 14) Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. The research documents trends in food pantry assistance during the 2007-09 recession. One trend the research found is that older Americans have increased their use of food pantries.In 2019, she also co-authored “SNAP benefits and childhood asthma” in the journal Social Science & Medicine (Vol. 220). The work examines whether poor families are making choices between purchase of food or asthma medication for children. Heflin’s research finds that increased SNAP benefits are associated with a reduction in probability of an asthma-related ER visit.
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Peffley receives University Research Professorship
May 2019
Mark Peffley, professor of Political Science and a UKCPR faculty affiliate, was recently recognized with a 2019-20 University Research Professorship. The award recognizes faculty who have achieved excellence in scholarship or creative work. Peffley, along with UKCPR Director James Ziliak, was one of 16 UK faculty members who received the award.
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Winners Announced for UKCPR-FNS Food Hardships Grant Competition
April 2019
UKCPR is pleased to announce awardees of its competitive grant program Understanding Food-Related Hardships among Older Americans, underwritten by a $1.49 million contract from the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA. We received a large number of excellent proposals, and were only able to fund a limited number. The list of grantees can be found here.
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Bipartisan Solutions to Expanding Economic Opportunity for More Americans
February 2019
UKCPR Director James Ziliak participated in a moderated panel at the Aspen Institute on policies to promote economic opportunity for Americans left behind. Ziliak unveiled a series of proposals to both bring rural people to jobs and jobs to rural people. The book is available for free download and a video archive of the panel discussions may be found here.
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James Ziliak featured in Fortune Magazine story on the shrinking middle class
January 2019
James Ziliak offers a solution to address the challenges facing the middle class in "The Shrinking Middle Class: How We Can Fix It", which is part of a special report found in the January 2019 issue of Fortune Magazine.
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UKCPR receives large grant from USDA to study food hardships among seniors
December 2018
UKCPR received a grant totalling $1.49 million from the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in USDA to sponsor a competitive grant initiative to understand the causes, consequences, and correlates of food-related hardships facing older persons in the United States. More information is available here.
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James Ziliak comments on recent Census report of poverty in Ky.
December 2018
UKCPR Director James Ziliak was interviewed as part of a WFPL story on a recent Census report showing that three of the five lowest median household income counties in America are located in Kentucky.