Inequality

Over the two decades prior to the onset of the global financial crisis, real disposable household incomes increased an average of 1.7% a year in the 34 countries represented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. As this rise in earnings occurred, however, so too did a rise in income inequality — a pattern that raises questions about imbalances in growth around the world.

Policy decisions concerning education programming and early interventions are increasingly driven by documented results from long-term academic studies. The Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS) has now tracked the education and post-education experiences of 1,539 families, most of which participated in the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Education Program (the second-oldest federally funded preschool program, behind Head Start).

The economies of Brazil, China and India are growing faster than many of their counterparts in the developing world. Despite this rapid growth, large portions of the populations in all three nations continue to live in conditions of poverty. Each country has had some success in reducing the numbers of impoverished citizens. But these achievements have come through very different approaches, with each employing a distinctive mix along two basic dimensions: pro-poor growth and pro-poor social policies.

The United States has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, and the primary causes — unhealthy diets and a lack of exercise — are well known. However, the social, economic, psychological and policy factors underlying the problem are less clear.

A 2011 study in Demography, “The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons” (PDF), uses Census data from 1940 to 2000, with additional data from the Census Bureau’s companion American Community Survey, to compare higher education completion rates for black men and women between 1940 and 2000.