The increase in earnings inequality over the past decades has reinforced (renewed?) interest in how to help bring up the incomes – and economic outcomes – of less fortunate members of society. However, less attention seems to have been paid to whether existing policies targeted at improving outcomes are working as intended. In "The Unraveling of Affirmative Action", the authors argue that (at least as currently implemented), affirmative action admissions to universities may harm students who lack the background to perform at a comparable level to their classmates. On a Canadian note, in a recent article in The Globe, Wente cites evidence that many social programs seem to have little if any positive impact – which raises the question of why governments have not moved to experiment more with alternative program designs to improve the effectiveness of these programs. At the same time, as a recent Bagehot column discusses, some programs are emerging that involve very active and ongoing interventions in the family life of some citizens.
While one can debate some of the conclusions reached in these articles, they do raise deep reaching questions about both the effectiveness of current policies that seek to help the economically disadvantaged, as well as what types of interventions are required. Beyond that, they raise questions about whether economists could (should?) be more active in communicating current research findings to policy makers and the public to help generate a more informed discourse about social policy options and challenges.
See you at the FUBar.
