Humanities & Society

Researchers at the Center for Social Development in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis are launching a new initiative to help shape the future of wealth-building policy in the United States, with a focus on giving children stronger financial foundations that can last a lifetime.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis argues that policymakers should enact gradual cutoffs for public benefits such as food assistance or healthcare. The change could help both families and employers by allowing low-wage workers to earn more without losing critical support systems.

Jin Huang, the Irving Louis Horowitz Professor in Social Policy at the WashU Brown School, has been appointed to serve on the advisory board of the Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work within the Council on Social Work Education.

As Americans work longer than previous generations, employers have an opportunity to create workplaces that support employees of all ages, according to a new article by Cal Halvorsen, associate professor at the WashU Brown School.

Jason Jabbari, an assistant professor at the WashU Brown School, has received a one-year $300,000 grant from the Popolo Family Foundation to study why some students with limited resources persist and thrive in college while others leave before earning a degree.

Fewer than half of Americans, around 49%, believe that all people in this country have the ability to achieve the American Dream, according to a recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. Among those under age 30, it falls to 36%. This should serve as a wake-up call for all of us, says WashU’s Mark Rank.

Researchers at the WashU Brown School have received a $311,796 grant from the Brady Education Foundation to continue a landmark 18-year study examining how early asset-building policies influence children’s educational success.

The WashU Brown School’s Social System Design Lab has received a $75,000 Spencer Foundation grant to study pathways from high school to careers in St. Louis. 

Mitra Naseh, an assistant professor at the WashU Brown School, has received a $612,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health as co-principal investigator on a new project titled “Community-Driven Solutions for Sustainable Systems Change.”

As voters are increasingly asked to decide complex health policy questions at the ballot box, new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis finds that healthcare-related ballot measures draw more voters to the polls and are more likely to pass than other initiatives — but they’re also especially sensitive to opposition spending by special interest groups.