This post first appeared on Tallahassee Democrat. The Senate began its month-long recess on August 13 without a completed deal on legislation that could help the millions of Americans still struggling with the economic effects of the pandemic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida’s unemployment rate was 11.3% in July, more than four…
Tag: inequality
How “Chilly” Climates for LGBTQ+ Students Deepen Inequalities on Campus
When someone brings up “chilly” campus climates, it might draw forth images of female students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classrooms. In fact, a long history of scholarly research traces the ways STEM fields have been unwelcoming toward women students, faculty, and workers. This chilly environment translates into lower pay than male counterparts,…
Ph.D. Spotlight: Weathering the Storm: An Examination of Fetal Loss, Maternal Age, and Norms of Race and Sexuality.
Dr. Latinsky’s dissertation tests if fetal loss can be applied as an extension of prior literature on the weathering hypothesis. To do so, this study extends upon the weathering hypothesis: the observation that black people experience substantially higher levels of stress than their white counterparts in the United States, that this gap only increases as…
Once lockdown was over, Germans on lower incomes went out while others stayed at home
This piece first appeared on LSE School of Public Policy. During the lockdown, Germans of all income levels stayed at home. But what happened once it was lifted? Amanda Driscoll (Florida State University), Jay Krehbiel (West Virginia University) and Michael Nelson (The Pennsylvania State University) discuss a study that finds people on lower incomes are much more likely to…
When men and women working long hours is the norm, women’s careers stall
This piece first appeared on LSE Business Review. Women remain remarkably underrepresented in the partner ranks in professional service firms—as lawyers, accountants, and consultants—despite having gained parity with men at the associate level long ago. This stalled advancement is surprising in light of companies’ efforts to improve the situation, often by means of well- intentioned…
Social Equity: The Predictable Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Minority Communities
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has demanded global attention as it claims the lives of more than 560,000 humans globally and more than 135,000 humans in the United States alone. COVID-19 death data in the United States by race, reveals a striking image of inequity. The data indicate that there are disproportionate deaths in Black and…
PhD. Spotlight: Distance Education and Horizontal Stratification in U.S. Higher Education.
Distance education has become an increasingly common mode of instruction in U.S. higher education, and today more than a quarter of students are enrolled in distance courses or programs that are fully online. Dr. Kaley Boggs’s dissertation asks two fundamental questions related to the growing presence of distance-based instruction in U.S. higher education. First, does…
Inequality: Capitalism’s Biggest Challenge
This piece first appeared on the Independent Institute blog. One of the most frequent shortcomings of capitalism cited by capitalism’s critics is inequality. People at the top of the economic ladder have so much more than those at the bottom. Inequality is capitalism’s biggest challenge because there is so much popular support for public policies…
What Does Fixing Social Security Mean?
Fixing Social Security is not rocket science. There is money available to fix it. Consider the $1.3 trillion of annual tax expenditures that are made each year. While some of these benefit low income households, it is estimated that over half benefit higher income households. Annual expenditures on Social Security are about $946 billion, so taking a knife to tax expenditures that favor the wealthy has promise.
Could the Flint Water Crisis Happen in Tallahassee?
The water problems in Flint were not the result of a few missteps; instead, Flint’s current fight for safe and affordable water is the product of long-term benign neglect of the space and the residents.
